Spider's Web
by dblanc
Summary: Trouble magnet, meet corpse magnet. Hakuba Saguru and Alex Rider go to Japan, meeting a phantom thief and several teen detectives along the way. Heists will be held, secrets will be revealed, and people will (of course) be murdered. (DCMK/Alex Rider crossover) Part II of the Convergence series.
1. Chapter 1: Introduction to Japanese

**Disclaimer (applies for all chapters)** : Neither Alex Rider nor Detective Conan/Magic Kaito belongs to me.

 **A/N** : This is a crossover between the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz and Detective Conan/Magic Kaito by Gosho Aoyama (with possibly more to come), and the second part of a series. If you haven't read Viper's Den, I strongly suggest reading that first.

With the upcoming _Never Say Die_ , this is now AU for Alex Rider after _Scorpia Rising_. For DCMK I'd say we're past the Mystery Train and Scarlet Showdown arcs.

* * *

 **Chapter 1: Introduction to Japanese**

Alex's first sight of Japan came through a break in the clouds as they approached the islands, brown and green against the dark blue Pacific Ocean.

"There's Hokkaido up in the north," Saguru pointed out through the window by their spacious business class seats. "Honshu's the main island, with Tokyo in the middle. Shikoku and Kyushu are the lower parts."

Alex repeated the names, then grimaced as he instinctively put stress on the syllables. It was hard not to, after years of lilting Romance languages. "I am not going to be able to understand anything." Alex had thought he was good at languages, but Japanese was a completely different beast from French or Spanish, and he was frustrated at how long it took him to get used to the new writing system and sentence structures.

"You picked up hiragana and katakana quickly."

"And fell flat on my face when I tried to learn kanji. What kind of writing system needs _three_ different alphabets?"

"Syllabaries," Saguru corrected. "Everyone has trouble with kanji—even mine is not as good as I would like, after spending so much time abroad. The major streets signs in Tokyo were recently changed to have English added. Koizumi-kun and I can both translate whenever we're together as well."

"Speaking of Akako…your mom decided to _talk_ to me about her." Or rather, Saguru's mother had cornered Alex while her son was away making last minute preparations for their trip. Dr. Elizabeth Hakuba had maneuvered him into sitting down for tea. Then with a deadly combination of precise decorum and genuine motherly concern she had proceeded to squeeze him like a sponge for information about her son. "If she ever gets bored running the company, I know some people who would love to have her on as an interrogator."

"Ah. I'm not surprised," Saguru sighed. "I was hoping to properly introduce Koizumi-kun to Mother later, but they ran into each other at the mansion while you were out."

"And?"

"Mutual dislike on sight."

Alex whistled. "God, I wish I could have seen that."

"Trust me, you do not. It was a highly uncomfortable experience for any bystanders in the vicinity."

Alex tried to picture the Hakubas' unexpectedly formidable matriarch and Akako facing off, and silently wished Saguru luck.

Their plane soon began its landing on the small man-made peninsula of Haneda Airport, and Alex abandoned his probing into Saguru's romantic and familial woes and turned to peppering the other teen with questions about his surroundings instead. After landing, they were quickly picked up by the Hakubas' housekeeper, a tall older woman with curled iron grey hair who kept on calling Alex "Mr. Rider" despite his best efforts.

"Baaya, has news of the KID's new note become public knowledge here yet?" Saguru asked her once the three of them were sitting privately in the family Lamborghini and on the hour-long drive to the Hakuba family mansion. It hadn't when they left, but a lot could happen in the twelve hours it took to fly from London to Tokyo.

Baaya shook her head, raising tiny clinking sounds from the thin chain on her round glasses. "Inspector Nakamori is planning to hold a press conference tonight, now that they know what the target is."

Alex blinked. "The Inspector's already figured out the note?" He remembered the booby-trapped gift box they had received in London with its pristine white card, and the lines written in English upon it:

The pursuit of beauty is its own reward.  
On the last nod of the bamboo staff,  
I shall pass through water and fire  
for the Selene blessed firstborn  
of one who spun color from sand and rust  
when she shines full.  
—Kaitou KID

Reference to the full moon aside, Alex hadn't been able to make heads or tails of the note. After spending every spare moment before they left researching, Saguru finally cracked it while using Heathrow Airport's wifi before they boarded the plane and was so smug Alex had to ignore him during most of the flight.

"No, someone else did. Or rather, two someones." Baaya was driving and couldn't turn around, but she paused significantly. "Saguru-botchama, I believe you know them both. That little child who chases KID and his Osakan friend."

"You mean…"

"Yes. Apparently, both Edogawa Conan and Hattori Heiji also received heist notices."

* * *

Conan sneezed. So did Heiji. Thankfully, the corpse on the ground didn't join in.

"Bless you both," Police Detective Miwako Sato said from her much cleaner spot near the door.

Heiji had come to visit Conan in Tokyo for the KID heist ("Ya thief invited me, Kudo!"). The two had gone out to eat at a gyoza joint, but they had barely begun to dig into a plate of the piping hot, crispy-skinned dumplings when a woman's voice screamed and a dead body fell to the ground outside their window seat.

Heiji took note of the stiffness of the corpse and mentally estimated how long rigor mortis had set in, and from there, the approximate time of death. "An' here I thought the KID heist would be the only case I'd get involved with on this trip."

"Hattori-kun came up from Osaka for the heist?" Sato asked as she went through the dead man's pockets. "Though I suppose that's not too far. Apparently Superintendent Hakuba's son flew back all the way from England to attend this one."

Conan was surprised. "Hakuba Saguru came back to Japan?"

"That blond jerk?!" Heiji exclaimed at the same time.

But if Hakuba was here from England, Conan thought, then that means…he shook his head, and returned his focus to the dead body before him. He had a murder to solve; he would have to figure out the implications of the half-British detective returning to Tokyo afterwards.

One investigation, demonstration of the ingenious murder method (involving the use of fishing line, rubber bands and a trained hamster) and subsequent arrest later, Heiji and Conan moved to a new seat in the back. The long-cold gyoza had been replaced, and the grateful restaurant owner had given them a free plate of takoyaki as well for seeing through the frame-job on her son. Conan was still mulling over what Sato had told them as they reattacked their food.

"If Hakuba Saguru is here for the Kaitou KID heist, then it's almost definite that Alex Rider is also here with him," he said.

Heiji paused in his attempt to stuff three dumplings at once into his mouth. "Oose 'lex Rid'r?"

"Now there's a question. At first glance, he seems to be a teenager Hakuba's mother hired to accompany him during the summer."

Heiji laughed. "Hakuba's mom got 'im a babysitter?"

Conan told him what he knew from Ai about the kidnapping attempt she, Hakuba, and the teen named Alex Rider had foiled together, and then the poisoning case the three also became embroiled in in England. "Haibara asked me to investigate Alex Rider after she met them again in Lymstock. I told her there was hardly anything to go on."

"But ya found something."

"Yes." They were in a deserted corner of the restaurant and the background chatter was loud enough to cover their conversation, but Conan scanned the room and lowered his voice anyways.

"I had little idea where to begin at first. All I had to go on was that this unusually skilled teenager, who despite being a complete stranger to Hakuba Saguru, was suddenly accompanying him everywhere right after a failed kidnapping attempt on the latter. Now the two of them could have suddenly hit it off—"

"With _Hakuba_? Ya gotta be kiddin'." Heiji snorted. "So ya thought he was hired as a bodyguard?"

"That would make sense, given the kidnapping. But then you would have to wonder why Hakuba's mother—by all accounts a shrewd businesswoman, proper English lady and nobody's fool—would accept a sixteen year old as the protector of her only son and heir."

"A teenager her son's age would stick out less than an adult bodyguard? If he can fight as well as ya said, it wouldn't be that bad a trade-off. An' he'd have the advantage of bein' underestimated due to his age."

"That still leaves the question of where he learned to fight like that. And there's another thing." Conan paused and scanned the restaurant again under the guise of sipping his green tea. "Haibara is positive that one of Them was at both the kidnapping and at the summation gathering in Lymstock where Hakuba revealed the killers. She got a text message with a reference to her code name at the kidnapping, and in Lymstock…Haibara went there in the first place because a biochemist named Simon Perréal had some research that could be helpful in deriving an antidote to the Apotoxin. But she felt the presence of one of Them during Hakuba's talk, and there was an unexplained fire in Perréal's lab immediately afterwards. She thinks…she thinks it might have been Vermouth."

Heiji considered it. "Maybe They were there to destroy or steal Perréal's research?"

"Theft is more likely. Haibara's pretty sure Perréal kept secure backups of his work, but any traces of a break in would have been covered by the fire." Ai had made her own copy of Perréal's work well before then; ever since her return she'd spent every waking moment outside of school down in her lab, trying to incorporate his biochemistry research into her own attempts at creating a cure for the Apotoxin.

Heiji speared a takoyaki ball with his chopsticks and chewed it thoughtfully. "Ah. So ya were also wonderin' if this Alex Rider has anything to do with the Syndicate."

"Haibara said that she was positive Rider isn't malicious, but she does think he's dangerous."

"Not evil, but dangerous, is an unexpectedly skilled fighter an' conveniently appears at both instances where They showed up in England…" Heiji whistled. "Ya think he's another undercover agent like Jodie-sōsakan? But he's what, sixteen?"

" _We_ _'re_ around that age," Conan reminded him. "It's just a guess. I've asked Jodie-sensei to tell me if she knows anything, but it'll probably take some time for her to get back to me."

"But he'll be there at the heist." Heiji grinned. "Saturday evenin' is gonna be very interestin'."

* * *

The next morning, Alex accompanied Saguru on his morning walk to Ekoda High.

"I can't believe you're going to school on a Friday," Alex said, stifling a yawn. Both boys had opted to stay up the entire night to adjust to the time difference faster, and Alex felt lightheaded from both the jet lag and the lack of sleep. Saguru looked reasonably awake, the effect of pouring two cups of black coffee down his throat at breakfast.

"Exams are starting soon; I don't want to miss any more of my classes if at all possible," Saguru said. They stopped outside the school gates, and Saguru straightened invisible wrinkles from his school uniform. "I told Koizumi-kun I'd wait for her."

"Okaerinasai Hakuba-kun! Koko ni anata no tomodachi wa dare desu ka?" A cheerful greeting came from a schoolgirl who was approaching them. She was accompanied by an energetic boy with unruly black hair who grinned wildly upon seeing Saguru. He began talking rapidly in Japanese while gesturing between Alex and Saguru, blue eyes alight with mischief, until the girl grew frustrated and tried to to whack him with a cry of "Bakaito!"

"She's Nakamori Aoko, and the idiot she's chasing around is Kuroba Kaito," Saguru told Alex. "They're both in my class."

Alex watched as Kaito bounced around the school entrance with Aoko in hot pursuit. Other students in uniform passed through the gates with barely a glance, as if the sight of one of their classmates performing handsprings and throwing live doves into the air while another chased him around with a broom was an everyday occurrence. "Is this normal?"

"With these two, yes." Saguru watched the two with something like fondness under his normal reserve. "Aoko-kun is normally very sweet-tempered, but Kuroba-kun can drive a saint to violence."

As if summoned by his name, the teenager in question abruptly cartwheeled to a stop in front of Alex. He clapped his hands together with a wide smile, and a puff of smoke appeared with a _crack_ over his palms.

Alex reacted without thinking. In one move he snagged both of Kuroba's wrists together and yanked so that the boy's arms and whatever he was holding was aimed at the ground, out of the way of any bystanders. At the same time he moved closer in preparation for a throw, but the other boy shifted in parallel so that they stood side by side instead.

Kaito's wrists tensed momentarily inside Alex's grasp as if he was about to twist out of his hold before relaxing again. His smile remained pinned in place. It was only then that Alex registered what he was holding: a giant bouquet of roses, somehow dyed in the pattern of the Union Jack.

"Like I said, enough to try a saint," Saguru said casually. "Kuroba is an amateur magician, class clown and _devoted_ Kaitou KID fan." There was an edge in the way Hakuba said the last bit which Alex didn't know how to interpret. "Aoko-kun, Kuroba, my friend here is Alex Rider. He's staying with me for the summer," Saguru continued, then he repeated what he said in Japanese.

"It's nice to meet you!" Aoko said in English. She bowed formally. "Sorry about Kaito. He is…" The extent of her foreign vocabulary seemed to fail her when it came to describing her friend, so she made a few annoyed gestures instead.

"Yes, sorry about that," Kuroba echoed. His English was much more confident, even if his accent was strong. "Do you not like roses? I prepared them for Hakuba, but I got excited. Did you two just return?"

"I like them fine, just not in smoke bombs," Alex said. Then he caught himself; Saguru's classmate was just a prankster. Just a prankster, and maybe a bit of a jerk, but not a threat.

"We flew in yesterday afternoon," Saguru said in response to Kaito's other question.

"Has he shown you around Tokyo at all?"

"A little. I've seen the Skytree, and the Ameyayokocho Street Market," Alex said in his best attempt at Japanese. At his request Saguru had spent the previous evening without using any English. Alex wanted to become as proficient in Japanese as he could, and immersion was the fastest way to achieve that.

"Oh yes, my father said you came to talk," Aoko said.

"Aoko-kun's father is Inspector Nakamori, who leads the Kaitou KID Task Force," Saguru explained.

"With you and the other tanteis there, I'm sure you guys will catch that stupid thief this time!"

Kaito scoffed. "Sorry Aoko-kun, but Kaitou KID wouldn't be caught that easily."

"My, aren't we confident," a knowingly amused and very familiar voice said. Alex turned to see Koizumi Akako, glamorous even in uniform as she slipped up beside Saguru and leaned suggestively against his shoulder. "Good morning, Saguru-kun. And to you as well, Alex—" Alex nodded back in greeting "—I hope you're enjoying Japan. Nakamori-kun, Kuroba-kun."

Aoko's eyes widened in delight. Kaito's eyes widened for very different reasons.

"Akako-chan! Are you two dating now?" Aoko asked.

Saguru looked nervous, and then he determinedly slipped Akako's free hand into his. "Yes." Akako glanced at him, but didn't object or move her hand away as congratulations burst out of Aoko in Japanese.

Kaito, Alex noted with interest, looked absolutely horrified.

"When did this happen?" The boy demanded in Japanese.

"In England. We—" Saguru began to answer, but then the school bell rang. "We had better go in before we're late. I'll see you after school," he said to Alex. "You will be fine exploring Tokyo by yourself?"

"I promise not to destroy the city my second day here," Alex said, and waved as they headed inside.

* * *

The break bell rang at Teitan High School, and Suzuki Sonoko immediately moved over to her best friend's desk. "Ran, let's go grab the spot under the sakura tree before it gets taken!"

The other girl didn't move from her position, her head propped up on one arm pensively. "Ran!" Sonoko leaned down to lightly link her own arm through her friend's, putting their heads side-by-side. "What are you daydreaming about?"

Ran's eyes refocused on Sonoko, and she smiled fondly. "I was just thinking about all of this—" she gestured at the classroom around them, with their classmates slowing flowing out. "—and how we only have a year left."

"Ya, Mouri Ran, you're making us sound old."

"It's not that long! Kasama-kun's planning to use the entire year to prep for the university entrance exams, and she's not the only one either. Have you thought at all about what you want to do afterwards?"

Sonoko shrugged. "Go to university here or abroad, most likely. I'm not aiming for anywhere like Todai. Oh, are you worried about the tests? But your grades are great, you'll do fine."

"But I'm not attending cram school or studying a lot outside class like Takashima-kun and Kasama-kun and the others." Ran frowned. "And I'm not even certain where I want to go either. Spending all that effort studying for the tests would be a waste if I ended up deciding to go to a technical school or something."

"Study abroad then! There are scholarships and exchange programs that aren't that expensive. We can go together and see the world."

"That would be nice. But I have people here that…" Ran suddenly seemed to come back to herself. "Look at the time! If you still want that spot, Sonoko, we'd better run."

Sonoko frowned as Ran stood up and headed towards the door, beckoning her to follow. Ran didn't say his name, but Sonoko was sure that a certain absentee Holmes-nerd had been in her mind. Sonoko had tried to be more accepting of the bond between Ran and Shinichi, because she knew how much Ran cared and guessed that Shinichi felt the same. But worries still stirred up in her mind.

Kudo Shinichi had been gone doing who knows what for almost two years now. How much longer would Ran keep on waiting for him? Until they were done high school? Even longer? What would she sacrifice to ensure that she would always be ready in case he returned? Would she try to keep herself unchanging, faithfully frozen in a cyclical limbo of anticipation and disappointment?

It was by no means the first time Sonoko had wondered what the hell was taking Kudo-kun so long to come back to Ran, but it was the first that she resolved to Do Something about it.

If the detective geek was hiding on purpose for some reason…well, then, Sonoko would have to fight fire with fire.

* * *

At the same time in another part of Tokyo, the break bell was also ringing at Ekoda High.

For once, Kaito didn't protest when Akako sprang upon him and dragged him up to the school's roof. At least she had waited until Hakuba had left to go talk to the teacher about his missed schoolwork first. The roof was off limits to students, but neither of them cared about the rules, and the door's lock was laughably easy to pick. He locked it again behind him to ensure privacy, then walked over to the edge of the roof where Akako stood, her red hair moving in the breeze.

"You need to know something about the heist tomorrow," she began, but Kaito stopped her.

"We need to talk about Hakuba first," he said. "Akako, if you're using your magic on him, stop it."

Akako huffed. "I'm not. What gave you the idea—"

"The two of you barely even talked to each other before. Then you both go away and suddenly you're dating?" Kaito narrowed his eyes, though the smiling curve of his mouth didn't change. "I didn't know England was such a romantic country. What happened there anyways?"

"One of my cousins there was murdered, and he helped find the killer." _Also I was poisoned and almost died, and he stopped me from killing the culprit_ , she thought but didn't say. Somehow Akako didn't think that was how most relationships began. "We…we saw a lot of each other, during the investigation."

"Oh." The look in Kaito's eyes softened a little. "But still Akako, even if Hakuba comforted you then or you liked how he solved the case, you can't take advantage of someone like that—"

"I am not using magic to bewitch him!" Akako snapped. Her throat felt raw. "Do you want me to swear a blood oath on it?" And to think that she came up here to try to help him! She was one step away from trying to hex Kaito into next week. "Is it so hard to believe that someone could like me without being glamoured into it?"

Kaito almost gawked at her, his usual jester's smile gone. "Kami save us all, you actually do like Mr. Tweed Wonder." He blinked, and assessed her as if she had sprouted a second head. "Though I suppose I should warn you that if you ever hurt him…" Hakuba Saguru may be an obnoxious Holmes-obsessed twat, but he was one of _his_ tanteis, damn it.

"Oh for Lucifer's sakes, you're almost as bad as his mother." Akako rolled her eyes, but at least she no longer looked like she wanted to claw his out. "Do you want to hear my information or not?"

"Ah, what did Miss Witch see in her magic mirror this time?"

Akako ignored his teasing tone and went on. "Events are…more unstable than usual." She was reluctant to admit that her powers were still on the mend from her poisoning and weaker than she would have liked. "There are two paths. Kaitou KID fails and is captured in one, either by your tanteis or by Alex Rider. And in the other…a black shadow awaits, and the white thief is shot down from the sky."

Most of that wasn't very unexpected. "Alex Rider?"

"He used to be a secret agent for MI6." Kaito's Poker Face stayed in place, but the pause was revealing enough. "You didn't know?"

He whistled. "That does explain his reflexes earlier. Hakuba must have been a busy bee in England. A murder, a girlfriend and a spy all in one trip?"

"Hakuba-kun didn't hire Alex; his mother did. As protection, I think." Akako's gaze grew distant. "Alex met someone from his past while we were in Lymstock, someone he will meet again…" She blinked and came back to herself. "Alex didn't work for MI6 willingly, and he's not working for them anymore, but he may still decide to use his skills to catch KID. So you shouldn't go to this heist. There are too many opponents."

Kaito grinned. "I, Miss Witch, am only attending as an ardent fan of KID. Tanteis, shadows and a young James Bond? How can you ask Kaitou KID to miss a show like that?"


	2. Chapter 2: The Three Detectives

**Chapter Two: The Three Detectives**

"There's a Miss Suzuki Sonoko to see you, Saguru-botchama," the Hakuba's housekeeper announced the morning of the KID heist.

The two boys had been preparing for the evening in the mansion's library. The museum KID was targeting happened to be holding a charity ball tonight, the night of the full moon. Saguru suspected that the museum's refusal to cancel or reschedule the function was at least partly motivated by news of the heist drawing additional attention, and in turn donations. For Saguru, this meant a lot of additional paperwork and contingency planning with the Task Force over the phone. For Alex, it was the much more entertaining work of reading up on some of the KID's more spectacular thefts.

"She does know that I have a heist this evening to prepare for right?"

"Yes, but Suzuki-san insists on seeing you. For a case, she said." Baaya paused. "She looked very determined."

Saguru considered it for a moment. "We'll receive her in the living room in a few minutes. Thank you, Baaya." Once she left, he explained to Alex: "The Suzuki's head the very wealthy Suzuki Financial Group. Their youngest daughter is a huge KID fan and rather boy-crazy. I've seen her at a few society functions, but I've never really talked to her before."

"You're done all that paperwork already?"

"I'll do the rest later. I want a break from filling out forms."

Alex grinned, bookmarked his spot in the Kaitou KID dossier he was perusing (recounting how the phantom thief had pretended to be able to teleport in mid-air), and followed Hakuba out of the library. A girl around their age with a heart-shaped face was waiting in front of a full tea set in the living room. Alex took note of her clothes—dark blue camisole under a white vest, white skirt, white bandanna holding back her brown fringe-cut hair—and realized she had coordinated for the heist. A KID fan indeed.

"Suzuki-san, it is nice to meet you," Saguru greeted her politely in Japanese. "This is my associate Alex Rider. Anything you have to say to me can be said in front of him. It would also be greatly appreciated if you can use English whenever possible, but if that is inconvenient I can translate."

"Oh, of course! If I knew English would be useful for talking to cute guys I would have paid way more attention to my lessons," Sonoko said. Her English speech was a bit slow, but it was comprehensible. "Oh, you can use my first name. Sonoko-san, Sonoko-chan, Sonoko-kun, just Sonoko: it's all good!"

"You said you have a case for me?"

"Yes. I want you to find a friend of mine for me. A missing persons case! Well, not really missing. He's said why he's gone, but I don't know if it's the truth, and it's been almost two years, and—"

"Wait," Alex interrupted. "Just who is it you want Hakuba to find?"

"Kudo Shinichi," Sonoko said. "Another teenage detective. You might have met him before?"

Alex had never heard of whoever it was, but the name clearly meant something to Saguru. His polite expression morphed into one of genuine interest. "We've never met, but of course I've heard of him. The Detective of the East. People tried to get him to attend the Sunset Mansion case and the Detective Koushien, but they couldn't contact him. No one has heard anything from him in a long time, but I haven't come across any rumours of foul play. I'd imagine his parents would have raised the alarm instantly if they suspected anything was wrong."

"Oh, I don't know if there's anything criminal to do with Shinichi-kun's disappearance!" Sonoko said, lapsing back into Japanese. "But he hasn't been to school in so long, and…Ran." Her eyes lit up. "That's right, you were at the Sunset Mansion! Do you remember a girl your age who was also there? Mouri Ran—long hair, very pretty, unbelievably good luck at gambling?"

"Sleeping Detective Mouri Kogoro's daughter," Saguru recalled. "Yes, I remember her."

"She's Shinichi-kun's best friend. They were practically joined at the hip when they grew up, and I've always expected them to start dating sooner or later. I mean, they already act like an old married couple. I never thought Shinichi-kun would keep a secret from Ran. But she doesn't know where he is either."

"Kudo-san hasn't told her anything?"

"I think he's said that he's on a case of some sort, and that he couldn't say more. It's all very vague."

"Well then," Saguru said. "If Kudo-san is gone for an investigation it's not prudent to interfere."

"But it's not supposed to be taking him this long!" Sonoko cried. "I don't know much about the detective world, but isn't Shinichi-kun supposed to be one of the best? Hensei Holmes and all that. What could be taking him so long? And making him act so strangely?"

Saguru had a few possibilities in mind, but she barged on. "If he's gone on a case, that's fine, I don't need to know the gory details. But I want to know that it's because of a case like he said, not because he's dead in a ditch or leading a double life in Hawaii or something." She looked at him. "Will you help?"

* * *

Alex put away his phone to send Sonoko off. She waved a cheerful goodbye from the window of her chauffeured car. "I'm guessing you accepted her offer," he said to Saguru.

"I'm sorry, we completely neglected to use English after the beginning, didn't we? Yes, she wanted to find someone for her friend. Tracking down errant boyfriends isn't usually my preference for a case, but this happens to be Kudo Shinichi, he's—"

"Another teenage detective. I did catch that part." Alex held up his phone. "I was looking him up while you two were talking. Tons of articles about the Detective of the East and all the cases he's cracked. He's even faced off with Kaitou KID before, apparently, if the translation I read is accurate. But nothing at all about him after the summer more than a year ago. No one's seen hair or hide of him for that long?"

"According to Suzuki-san, he showed up out of the blue for their school play and solved a murder. Left again right away, but not before making sure news of his appearance wouldn't leak out."

"It does sound like he's hiding from something," Alex said. "If he really is on a case, should you really be crashing in on that?"

"I'll just confirm it and leave him alone."

Alex looked at him. "Oh God. You're curious."

"A little," Saguru admitted. Alex sighed. "You're not going to try to persuade me against it?"

"Because that's worked so well before?" Alex said. Privately, he was rather curious himself after learning about Kudo Shinichi's disappearance. "Where do you plan to begin?"

"I'll call his parents, though I doubt they'll be much help if they haven't mentioned anything about this for so long. Suzuki-san also told me she's heard that there are two people who have kept in steady contact with Kudo-san after his disappearance. Hattori Heiji and Edogawa Conan. We'll be seeing them both at the heist tonight."

* * *

The Metropolitan Art Museum that evening was an odd combination of a fancy party and an extremely serious police operation. Laughing guests in formal tuxedos and evening gowns alternated with tense policemen in uniforms. Alex had been surprised to see such festivities in a place where a major burglary was expected to occur, before Saguru explained to him about KID's "no one gets hurt" policy. He noted the extensive security measures, however: every possible entrance was guarded by at least two policemen, everyone entering the museum had their identities checked and were body-searched, and he could even hear the distant buzz of police helicopters, circling in the sky above in case Kaitou KID decided to use his signature hang glider.

"I know KID's supposed to be a master of disguise, but this is a little ridiculous," Alex said, rubbing his left cheek where he had been vigorously pinched by Inspector Nakamori to check that he wasn't, in fact, Kaitou KID wearing a latex face mask. Several of the police officers they passed as Saguru led him to where the heist target was stored also bore bright purple marks of the Inspector's diligence on their faces.

"It's a simple precaution," Saguru said. "It can be difficult to comprehend just how skilled KID is at impersonation until you've see him in action."

They went down below the multiple floors filled up by the gala and into to the second basement level of exhibits, and from there into a small gallery filled with marvels of stained glass done in the Art Nouveau style. Even Alex recognized the artist who created these pieces—lamps made from jewel-toned dragonflies and fields of glowing flowers filling an entire window—without needing to read the exhibit sign. "Tiffany."

Saguru led him to a separate room inside the gallery. Twin rows of empty glass cases ran down its length, and a lone plinth stood at the very end of the room. It was cordoned off, with a tight circle of serious looking officers standing guard about five feet away from it. Saguru stopped and showed the guards their clearances, while Alex stood up higher to see KID's target.

"This brooch satisfies all the clues in the note. The materials, the history of the piece—it's an early Louis Comfort Tiffany original," Saguru said.

Alex appraised the large, bejeweled brooch that was the subject of so much hubbub.

"...It's bloody _hideous_." Tiny black pieces of mother-of-pearl had been gathered into the shape of what Alex guessed was supposed to be a stylized lizard (or maybe a toad?). It had two giant greenish-yellow garnets for eyes, along with squirming and extremely detailed limbs tipped with seed pearls which were probably supposed to represent suckers. Lush silvery-white moonstones were scattered across its body like boils.

" _Very_ early Tiffany piece," Saguru sighed. "It's supposed to be a salamander. One of his very first works starting out as a jeweler, they say, hence the value."

Alex tilted his head. "Yunno, it kinda looks like an alien head from this angle."

"Kaitou KID usually has better taste," Saguru admitted.

"How did you know that this is the one he wants?" Alex had passed several cases full of exquisite jewelry on their way here. He personally would have gone for something like the intricate opal and turquoise butterfly pin he saw in the outer gallery, and not the ugliest piece in the entire exhibit.

"The heist note. Louis Comfort Tiffany once declared 'The pursuit of beauty' to be his lifelong goal—that's the first line. 'Sand and rust' is a reference to his invention of Favrile glass, which is made from silica and metal oxides. Also note that KID uses the American spelling of 'color', without the 'u'. 'Selene blessed firstborn' means one of his earliest pieces, and likely something with moonstones in it as well. Salamanders are also associated with both fire and water. This brooch is really the only thing that fits."

"I see. And the full moon is tonight, but how did you get that the heist would be held at nine o'clock?"

"There are nine nodes on a Taoist bamboo staff; one 'nod' or 'no-do' for each hour." A new voice spoke in English from the room's entrance, and Saguru's jaw clenched. Alex turned to see a strange pair—a Japanese teenager with dark skin and spiky hair worn under a baseball cap, with a boy of around seven or eight standing next to him.

Hattori Heiji and Edogawa Conan.

* * *

"Hattori Heiji-kun, Edogawa Conan-kun," Saguru walked over and greeted them politely. He hadn't known that Hattori's English was that good.

"Hakuba-niichan! Who's he?" Conan stared at Alex through his large square glasses, just over three feet of excitable little boy. Unlike Hattori, he was dressed almost as formally as Hakuba was in a short sleeved dress shirt and grey vest.

Alex bent down with a smile. "You're the boy who's been chasing Kaitou KID, right?" More successfully than the rest of the police force, if the articles he read were to be believed. Alex wouldn't have been surprised—behind the glasses, the look in Conan's eyes was uncannily reminiscent of Ai. "I'm Alex. I'm a friend of Hakuba's." Heiji snorted. "I'm staying with him in Japan."

"But he's letting you help at this heist? Like Dr. Watson? No," the boy said, tapping his chin thoughtfully. Then he beamed, all wide-eyed innocence. "You look more like James Bond!"

Saguru sputtered. Alex continued smiling. "I'm more of a Bourne fan." It was a decent response whether Conan had knowingly thrown the dart or not. The boy was apparently a sleuth like Saguru and he reminded Alex of Ai; Alex wasn't ruling anything out.

"I'm surprised you came all the way from Osaka for this," Saguru said to Heiji. The _especially if you knew I was coming_ went unsaid.

"I got a personal invitation, and my exams are over already," Heiji grinned, showing his teeth. Then he reached across and ruffled Conan's hair. "'Sides, how could I pass the chance to go to a KID heist with this little guy?"

Conan huffed in irritation. "How do you think he'll take it?" he asked, looking at the salamander brooch.

"KID will probably sneak in by impersonating one of the guests," Saguru said. "There are too many of them here for the gala, and several are too prominent to suffer the indignities of having their cheeks pinched. I presume you have a strategy already?"

"Keep in constant contact with the other teams, suspect everyone until proven otherwise, and stick close to Conan-kun; he's the only one of us KID can't impersonate," Heiji said. "And play the rest by ear, unless you've a better idea."

"What do you think, Alex-niichan?" Conan asked.

Alex looked around at the setup the police had prepared. He could spot the various cameras around the exhibit, as well as the battery-operated lights that had been brought in so that KID wouldn't be able to use darkness as a cover if he cut the power.

"Hakuba's probably right about KID disguising himself to get into the museum. But getting down to this level would be harder. The elevator's been disabled and all the stairs and escalator are covered. He could try crawling in through one of the vents, I suppose, but then there's still the problem of how he'd get out." They were two levels underground, so no convenient windows to hang glide out of. What would he do if he wanted to steal that brooch? He would probably need some gadgets from Smithers, for starters. "He'd have to fight his way past all those guards—but right, KID doesn't really fight…He could cause a distraction, or release some sort of sleeping gas and knock us all out."

"The officers all carry around gas masks after the last time he pulled that," Saguru said.

"Not bad, though," Conan said. "It's like you've done this before."

"Alex was there for one of my cases in England," Saguru said quickly. Conan did think something was up with Alex, then. It was time to change the topic. "You know, almost every teen detective who has chased KID is here."

"Yeah, we're just missing onna-tantei," Heiji said. At Saguru's look: "Sera Masumi? She was there at the Blush Mermaid heist with Ku-Conan." Conan glared at him, and Heiji looked embarrassed, for some reason.

"I have not had the pleasure of meeting Sera-san," Saguru said. "But I had been thinking of someone else."

"There ain't that many teen detectives who's been at KID heists."

"There is at least one more. Or have you forgotten about Kudo Shinichi?" Hattori nearly choked on whatever he had been about to say. "I thought he was supposed to be your close friend?"

"Ya, what are you trying to say?!" Hattori's temper had not gotten any more manageable since the last time they met, Saguru thought.

" _Hattori_ ," Conan hissed. Heiji looked at him, something unreadable passing in the glance between them, and Saguru knew that he wouldn't be able to get anything useful out of Hattori if the Osakan could help it.

"You know him too, don't you Conan-kun?" he said instead, watching everything with sharp eyes.

Conan rubbed the back of his head with his hand and laughed. "Yeah, Shinichi-niichan's a distant cousin of mine! He's taught me a lot about detective work."

"Do you know how we can contact him?" Alex asked. "A concerned friend wants to know."

"Which friend?"

"I am afraid I cannot reveal that," Saguru told Heiji serenely. "Client confidentiality."

Heiji took a rapid stride forward and began to tell Saguru where he could shove his client confidentiality in incredibly vivid Japanese. He stood in between Conan and Saguru, so Alex was the only one who saw the boy's whole body freeze, the reflected glare from his glasses hiding his eyes from sight. A moment later he shifted and the glare vanished, showing the bright blue eyes of a child who was excited for the evening's adventure, and nothing more.

 _Afraid. They_ _'re both afraid_ , Alex thought as Heiji and Saguru continued arguing. _And they_ _'re both hiding something about Shinichi Kudo._

* * *

Once Saguru and Heiji finally stopped their bickering, the group headed back out into the main Tiffany exhibit. Just then Saguru heard Akako calling their names, and turned to see her sweep into the gallery. His jaw dropped.

Alex couldn't blame him. Akako had never been known for dressing conservatively, but for this special occasion she'd gone all out in a bright scarlet, tightly clinging dress. The comparatively modest skirt swirled from calf to mid-thigh; the top portion, on the other hand, seemed to be composed entirely of strategically placed red bandages. The ensemble was topped off by stiletto heels, elbow length black gloves and a chunky metal choker which looked heavy enough to be used as a weapon in an emergency.

"Akako-san, I didn't know you'd be here," Saguru said. "How did you get down here? This floor is supposed to be off limits to civilians."

"I wouldn't miss this for the world," Akako said. "I told the nice officer—Ohshima, I think his name was?—that I was here to support my boyfriend."

Saguru frowned. "And he let you through?" (Behind him he could hear Hattori mutter "Hakuba's dating a girl like _that_?") He would have to reprimand Officer Ohshima. Or better yet, tell Nakamori-keibu and have him do it instead.

Akako shrugged, the movement shifting the strips of her dress, and Saguru abruptly realized that between her magical glamour and her choice of attire, the officer probably hadn't been paying much attention to her words. He groaned. "Please try not to distract the officers, Akako-san, we need them all to be alert tonight—" Then suspicion struck. "Wait, did he not clear you then?"

The girl's dark brown eyes widened. "Oh, so you think _I_ _'m_ KID?" She took two steps forward, and pulled Saguru into an extremely thorough French kiss.

Hattori wolf-whistled in the background. "There's a broom closet down the hallway, you two," Alex said, his eyes on the ceiling. Finally, the two broke apart. "That is an amazing dress, by the way," he added, since Saguru looked to be still a little tongue-tied.

Akako beamed. "Thank you! I borrowed it from an aunt of mine; she's worn it once before to a wedding." While Alex tried to mentally connect his idea of a wedding with what she was wearing, she turned to Saguru. "I don't suppose I can convince you to join me for a dance later?"

"I'm going to be busy with the heist, but I'll see if I can find some time after the main event," he apologized.

"That's fine, I know tonight's going to be eventful." She smiled, but there was something serious behind it. "Good luck, and be careful. There's a crow circling." Conan's expression abruptly slid from indulgence to sharp alertness, but she withdrew without elaborating.

"I thought that Kaito KID doesn't hurt people at his heists," Alex said.

Saguru watched her leave in a swirl of red. "No, but sometimes he's not the only criminal at his heists, and the others may not be so conscientious about collateral damage."

* * *

Among the numerous video cameras scattered around the museum there were a handful which did not belong to the museum or the police, even if they looked exactly the same as the others. The feeds from these rogue cameras were currently being viewed on the smart-phone screen of one Kaito Kuroba, aka Kaitou KID, hidden behind a false wall on the floor below the Tiffany exhibit.

Kaito watch with interest as the two (really three) sleuths and one teen spy gathered and immediately start prodding at each other's secrets. He was surprised that Conan and Heiji appeared to if not know, then at least strongly suspect the truth about Alex Rider. Hakuba looking into Kudo Shinichi's whereabouts was less of a surprise—tantei-san may have gotten into the habit of regularly sweeping the mansion for listening devices, but a disguised Kaito had slipped a hidden recorder onto Suzuki Sonoko before she visited with her request.

Still, it was time they focused on the proper star of the evening. Kaito made a final check of his many, many pockets, smoothed out non-existent creases from his spotless white suit, and flipped out his cape. Hakuba and Kudo were formidable rivals individually even before one added the Detective of the West and a surprise teenage spy to their ranks, but a good kaitou kept his plans flexible and made adjustments as necessary. He had several tricks up his sleeves for tonight.

Kaito let his Poker Face click into place; the final and most important piece of his costume. When he grinned, it was all KID.

" _Showtime._ "

* * *

 **A/N:** I don't really have a consistent update schedule planned for this, I'm afraid. I like to keep a minimum two chapter buffer, so the plan is to update whenever I complete the next chapter after that. I am slightly ahead right now, but I also still need to plan out the nitty-gritty details of the upcoming murder case, so I'm not expecting the lead to last.

A big thanks to all the lovely readers and reviewers! I was honestly shocked to see how many people checked in for the sequel so long after the previous installment.


	3. Chapter 3: To Catch a Thief

LookingForAlaska: Japanese is supposed to be extremely difficult for native English speakers to learn. The Foreign Service Institute (which trains US diplomats, intelligence agents etc. in foreign languages) estimated it would take something like 80 weeks or more than 2000 class hours to become fully fluent (for comparison, French and Spanish are estimated to take around 20 weeks and 600 class hours). Given how long Alex has spent in Japan so far, there's no way he'd become fluent anytime soon, which is something I have to work around. I haven't watched The Darkest Nightmare yet, so those events are not included. (For now? I may decide to do something with it later.)

 **A/N:** As always, thank you all for reading!

* * *

 **Chapter 3: To Catch a Thief**

At 8:59pm the Tiffany salamander brooch was surrounded by a circle of police guards, three teenagers, a small child and some very tense silence.

Alex didn't know what to expect. From his readings earlier KID did everything from sneaking in while disguised to walking right in—sometimes through mid-air. Still, he thought as he counted down the seconds, it was a nice break to have an opponent that he shouldn't have to worry about trying to kill him.

Nine o'clock struck, and a voice spoke out in flawless English. "Welcome to tonight's show everyone, with a special mention to our guests from Osaka and abroad!" The voice came from everywhere and nowhere, from every corner of the room at once. " _Three, two, one_ …"

Something small and round _plinked_ down from the ceiling. Alex saw what looked like a pale pink marble, which split open and started releasing billowing clouds of neon coloured smoke. Followed by another, and another.

"It's coming from the vents!" Inspector Nakamori yelled. "Everyone, put on your gas masks!"

Alex and the circle of officers complied. Hakuba and Conan did not.

"He went to the trouble of inviting all of us here," Saguru murmured. "I'd like to think he has more in mind than just knocking us out right away."

Heiji took away the sleeve covering his nose and took a hesitant sniff. "Well, I'd be passed out at this point if it's sleeping gas. I think he's just using it to create cover. " But it quickly became apparent that there was another use for the gathering smoke, as the tendrils reached the ceiling and the fire alarms triggered.

Alex winced; the noise was deafening. Then the sprinklers turned on and started drenching everyone in steady sprays of water. "Someone call the control center and tell them to turn that off!" Inspector Nakamori yelled.

It was all an extremely effective distraction. Alex reached up to push a wet tendril of hair out of his eyes—fighting his instincts which were yelling _smoke and noise means an attack, means danger—_ and stopped. A new figure in white had emerged from the chaos, watching everyone.

So this was Kaitou KID. The face obscured under the top hat and behind the monocle looked younger than Alex expected, though that meant very little given the thief's skill at disguise. He was obviously a showman too, Alex thought, noting the pristine white suit which was somehow not getting soaked like his own shirt was. KID looked blithely unconcerned that he was walking straight into a room full of people whose dearest desire at that moment was to throw him in jail and toss away the keys.

" _GET HIM_!" As one, Saguru, Conan, Heiji, Alex and the Task Force officers took a step forward to surround the phantom thief.

And could not take another.

Alex tried to pull his leg up, but both of his feet refused to leave the ground, no matter how hard he pulled. He tried to kick one leg out with all his strength, and had to ungracefully windmill his arms to stop himself from toppling. Several of the officers around the case _had_ fallen and now had their entire bodies stuck to the floor.

"…Water activated adhesive, he must have prepared the carpet beforehand…" he heard Hakuba mutter in disgust.

"KID's not getting stuck," Alex said as he knelt down to untie his shoelaces. The thief was whistling as he strolled through the room, past all the officers who were struggling like bugs on flypaper.

"He's probably prepped his shoes," Conan said as he drew his feet out of his sneakers and stepped onto them, taking care not to touch the surrounding carpet. "Hattori, help me."

Heiji lifted Conan up and gingerly placed him on a nearby display case. The glass was strong enough to take the boy's weight, but it was also slick with water, so Heiji kept a firm hand on Conan's waist. Conan pressed his belt and— _was that a full sized football_?—popped out from the buckle. The boy kicked the ball straight at KID's head with surprising aim, then growled when the thief dodged.

"He's too far away for me to dart him," Conan said in frustration, looking around for another post he could hop to.

"You have darts too? Where are you getting all these wonderful toys?" Alex asked, not really expecting an answer as he stepped onto his own shoes and looked around as well. There was a line of display cases Conan could use as stepping stones to reach the end of the room, but the first one was out of Conan's jumping range.

Heiji took off his jacket and looked at Hakuba. "I'm gonna need your blazer to help Conan-kun reach that case."

Saguru looked at the positions of the display cases, then at the cheerful KID, who was breaking into the plinth holding his target and avoiding the occasional grabs attempted by stubborn Task Force officers with ease. He estimated times and distances, and shook his head. "Use Edogawa-kun's vest instead. Alex and I will go to the entrance of this room and intercept him when he gets out."

"Ya! You jerk—" Conan moved on top of the case, and Heiji's curse was cut short. Saguru removed his blazer, and using it and his socks, managed to make a trail towards the doorway which was also within Alex's reach. The additional sacrifice of Alex's jacket let them both hopscotch to the exit—just as KID reached it as well.

Hakuba made a grab for the thief which was easily dodged, but the motion put him within Alex's range. Alex threw a kick at KID's chest, only for KID to hinge backwards at the waist and let it pass harmlessly overhead. The man moved as if he was made of rubber. The thief back-flipped out of Alex's reach, and ran.

Alex and Saguru gave chase. More officers in uniforms were coming down to the basement to provide backup, but KID did not head for the floor exit. Instead he made a beeline for the elevator.

"Hasn't that been disabled?" Alex asked.

"It has," Saguru said, as KID vanished into the elevator doors. "The elevator landing doors are also supposed to be inoperable, and that's obviously not stopping KID."

They reached the elevator a moment later. There was no one inside, but the ceiling panels had been removed. Alex looked up through the gap and could see the glowing white figure of the thief as he ascended up the elevator shaft. KID noticed his audience below, and saluted. The salute turned into a casual toss, and both boys ran back towards the door as several coloured pellets fell down. Neither of them quite made it in time before the pellets exploded.

"Your thief may not hurt people, but he is utter hell on clothes," Alex muttered. Alex was almost used to people trying to kill him at this point; someone who was only targeting his dignity took some getting used to. He was drenched, shoe-less, and covered with multi-coloured slime, courtesy of KID's little gifts in the elevator. Saguru was in a similar state, with the addition of glitter dusting his hair.

"That was my favourite blazer too," Saguru sighed. "Hey!" he yelled to the equally bedraggled Heiji and Conan who were running out of the exhibit room. Conan had somehow managed to rescue his sneakers from the sticky carpet, though now his every step sounded like he had velcroed his shoes. "KID went up the elevator shaft! He only went up one floor."

"That's the first basement floor; the gala is going on up there," Heiji said as they all changed course towards the stairs. Conan saved his breath so he could keep up on his much shorter legs. "He'll be able to disguise himself as one of the guests."

Saguru called the control room, then switched to live video and zoomed out so they were all visible on screen—a measure they all had agreed on beforehand to prevent KID from mimicking their voices in order to give orders. "KID is on the first basement level. Seal all the exits to that floor and make sure no one enters or leaves, no matter what." He closed the call. "He's not quite home free yet."

* * *

The first basement floor wasn't as crowded as Conan had feared, but there were still a good number of gala guests wandering about. He rushed to the main entrance, and with relief found it barred as requested.

The four looked at each other. "Now what?" Alex asked. "KID may be on this floor, but there's too many people to go around and pinch everyone's cheeks."

"There are two exits to this floor, and both are blocked right now," Saguru said. "I'd expect him to cause a distraction at one of them and sneak out."

"Three," Conan said. They looked down at him. "Three exits. He could go back to the elevator shaft. I wonder why he only went up one floor." KID knew the layout of the museum, and the elevator led all the way up to the top floor. He already had the brooch. Conan had an uncomfortable feeling that the thief was prolonging the chase on purpose. But why?

"Four of us, three exits. All right, that's pretty simple," said Heiji. "You two each cover one of the floor entrances; Conan and I will head back to the elevator."

It was reasonable, but something about it rankled. Kaitou KID had had the upper hand so far; they've done nothing but react to the thief's antics. If only they could anticipate the thief…

He looked at Alex, and thought of something.

"Actually, I have another idea," Conan said.

* * *

Heiji had found tonight to be very entertaining so far. There was nothing quite like the thrill of the chase, the adrenaline in the veins as you matched wits against a clever and skilled opponent. Kudo was enjoying himself as well, he could tell. KID heists were a nice change from the blood and nastiness of their regular murder cases.

The first part of Kudo's plan was easy enough to follow. Only once Heiji and Alex found their way back to the elevator door and blocked it with a heavy statue that took their combined strength to lift, there was nothing to do but wait.

Heiji agreed with Kudo's logic in general: Conan, being the only one of them KID couldn't disguise himself as, should take one of the exits himself, leaving two of them to pair up and Hakuba Saguru to wander about as prime bait for impersonation. This division had the added, unspoken benefit of allowing Heiji to try to get some information on the mysterious Alex Rider…without tipping the other teen off.

"So…what's Hakuba like when he's not solving a case? Still high and mighty?" Heiji figured it was as good a start as any.

The other teen gave him a look. "What do you have against Hakuba?" Before Heiji could utter a half-hearted denial: "You two have been at each other like cats and dogs all evening."

"Besides having an ego that could be used as a balloon and refusing to admit when he's wrong? Ask him what happened at the Detective Koushien one of these days." Heiji's blood still simmered at the memory. Hakuba, of course, was pretending it all had never happened.

"…He gets better once you know him more," Alex said. "Do you teen detectives all know each other?"

"Us bigger names have pretty much all met each other; Kudo Shinichi the Detective of the East, me, Detective of the West" —begrudgingly— "Hakuba, and Sera Masumi."

Alex snorted. "You guys have _titles_? Truly the sign of great humility." His brown eyes suddenly sharpened. "Hakuba's never met Shinichi Kudo. Has that Sera girl?"

Crap. Both Hakuba and Sera have met Kudo, of course, but as Conan. Heiji tried for a nonchalant laugh. "You'd have to ask her."

"I thought you said you've all met?"

" _I_ _'ve_ met everyone else. That's what I meant." Alex looked unconvinced. This was not going the way Heiji planned at all.

Luckily, a familiar voice called out right then. "Alex, Hattori, over here!" It sounded exactly like Hakuba's voice, down to the slight British accent, and came from a nearby doorway leading to an exhibit of Roman art.

Alex and Heiji looked at each other. _I_ _'ll go in, you go around_ , Alex mouthed silently, and Heiji nodded. It looked like Kudo's guess was right. He watched Alex head towards the doorway, and circled around to that room's exit, sending out a group text at the same time.

 _Hakuba, if you_ _'re not the one in the Roman exhibit, send reinforcements there **now**. _

* * *

Alex ran into the room, then stopped short.

As they expected, it was Kaitou KID, lounging on top of a replica Roman arch, white cape and all. Alex reached for his cell phone, then jerked back as a playing card shot towards where his hand had been. The door slammed shut behind him with a sharp _click_.

"Oh no, let's not have interruptions yet," KID said. Alex forced his eyes to watch the thief's movements instead of studying the modified card gun he had shot the Ace of Spades out of—it looked like a child's toy, and unlike any of the guns he had used or studied before. Smithers would have loved it.

"You want to talk?" Alex said, walking towards him. There was an exit behind KID which he could escape from; Heiji should be waiting outside, with the others on their way. "Why not come down then? I'm starting to get a crick in my neck."

"Nah, I like the high ground." KID tilted his head to an improbable angle. Combined with his monocle, he reminded Alex of an owl.

"But I couldn't let the chance to talk to a real life teenage spy pass."

* * *

Alex reacted very quickly; Kaito had to give him that. The other teen's eyes widened for a second; then they darkened, and suddenly it was clear to see that Alex Rider was dangerous. "…Did you bug Hakuba's house?"

Aha, so Hakuba _did_ know. "Good guess, but no." Aside from Hakuba's fondness for regular bug sweeps and testing Hakuba Labs' new signal jammers, he doubted the detective would be careless enough to discuss Alex's situation anywhere unsecured. "Hakuba is a very good detective, but I'm surprised MI6 is so lax about the secrecy of their teenage agent."

"Obviously, if random thieves from the other side of the world can find out about it," Alex bit out.

"Ah, but I'm the Moonlight Magician. Rules don't apply."

"Rules of legality, or just of common decency?" Oh, he'd made Alex angry.

"I usually try not to disregard the latter. I just wanted to know why on earth MI6 would force a teenager to do their dirty work."

If Alex's gaze had sharpened before, he was positively glaring daggers now. It was a really good thing he was out of reach above. "Why, are you in the market for an agent now too?"

"No. I can do things like that myself, thank you very much." Kaito raised gloved hands in a gesture of supplication, and mentally added a note to find out exactly what Alex's history with MI6 was, if any mention of them raised his hackles like that. "I just wanted to know why you're accompanying Hakuba. What does tantei-san need protection from?"

* * *

The Kaitou KID was officially the weirdest criminal Alex had ever encountered, which was saying something given that contenders included Kaspar aka Mr. Planet-Tattoo-face and his own evil clone. No thief he had ever heard of sent advance notice of his heists, dress in flashy white like a giant target, or showed such interest in the well-beings of the detectives who wanted to capture him.

And he knew about Alex, too. If Alex hadn't wanted to catch KID before, he certainly did now. "So you can find out classified information, but not why I'm with a friend of mine for the summer?"

A banging noise came from the exit behind them. Heiji and the others had arrived. As KID spared a glance towards the door they were having trouble opening, Alex launched a high kick at the column the thief was standing on top of. A genuine Roman marble column would have broken his foot, but this was a replica, and the hollow plaster shattered. Kaitou KID leapt down, white cloak flaring out into a hang glider which let him pass overhead—

Until Alex used a nearby stand as a leaping off point and just managed to grab at one tip. The smooth fabric slid out of his grasp almost instantly, but it was enough to yank the Kaitou KID back down to the ground.

Conan ran inside the room, wrists raised at the phantom thief fleeing towards him. KID dodged to one side. Alex copied the move, more on instinct than anything else, and something needle thin shot out past where they'd both been.

 _Conan_ _'s wristwatch doubles as a dart gun?_ Alex thought distractedly before focusing on the chase again. Kaito KID fired another playing card, forcing Conan to duck down, and a high vault carried the thief over his pint-sized pursuer and out the door.

"Hattori and Hakuba are in position outside," Conan said to Alex quietly as they followed.

It was the plan Conan had come up with earlier: present KID with both a puzzle and a convenient tantei to impersonate, and then herd him into a dead end. Risky, and dependent on the thief's curiosity and love of playing with his pursuers, but it seemed to be working. For the first time this evening, they and not KID were in control of the game.


	4. Chapter 4: Trial by Fire

LookingforAlaska: Conan kicking without his shoes was kind of a heat-of-the-moment action. As for Alex being mad at KID, Alex hasn't exactly had good experiences with people finding out about his past before, and to him KID is a criminal, albeit a nonviolent one. He _is_ mad at MI6, but they're an ocean away and KID is right in front of him.

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Trial by Fire**

Saguru half expected to be quietly ambushed with sleeping gas at every turn as he wandered towards one of the exits, but he reached the lobby unmolested. Instead of walking up to greet the police guards—it would be ironic if they mistook him for KID at this moment—he scanned the surroundings, looking for anyone out of place.

He received Alex's message just as he had satisfied himself that everything was normal. _Hakuba, if you_ _'re not the one in the Roman exhibit, send reinforcements there now._ Conan's guess had been correct, Saguru thought as he began running, making not for the Roman exhibit but a certain strategic position two turns and a hallway down from it.

What's more, this meant that Kaitou KID had purposely chosen to come out on this floor. The thief could have headed straight towards the upper floors and freedom, but instead decided to prolong the game.

Saguru reached his assigned position, and tried to conceal himself in the shadows as best as he could. He didn't have to wait long; he counted three and a half minutes on his internal clock before he heard a few quiet, precise clacks. Then half a minute after that, the sounds of three pairs of steps running in pursuit towards him (Hattori in front, with Conan and Alex slightly behind, if he had to guess).

The time had come. Saguru whipped out into one end of his corridor, and saw Hattori turn the other corner—crashing straight into a surprised Akako.

"Careful, Akako-san!" Saguru dashed up just in time to catch her from falling. It was her stilettos which he had heard earlier; not the best choice of footwear for stability.

Conan and Alex caught up to them. "Akako, did you see KID pass this way?" Alex asked. She shook her head.

"And how do you know _she_ isn't KID?" Conan asked, suspicious.

"I was no more than two seconds behind him," Heiji said. "I know KID can change outfits quickly, but I think even he'd have trouble replicating a dress like that down to the last details in such a short time."

"She arrived here about thirty seconds ago; I heard her shoes," Saguru confirmed.

Conan looked skeptical. "Where did he go then? This is a dead end." The three of them had come up from one end of the corridor, Saguru from the other, and there was nothing behind Akako but a blank wall.

She rolled her eyes. "Go ahead and check me then."

"Hey." Conan pulled at her skirt, then blanched and stopped when the tug looked like it might make her entire dress unravel. "Earlier, what did you mean by crows?"

"They're waiting tonight, aren't they?" Akako looked down at the boy in interest. "Or did you not expect them, little detective?"

Her dress and her behaviour were perfectly Akako, but why was she here? Something unpleasant nagged at the back of Saguru's mind. _Memories of another heist, and Kuroba with a perfect alibi_ —

"Wait," Saguru said slowly. If he remembered the museum blueprints correctly… "Something's strange. This wall…"

He reached out one hand, and in that instant an enormous cloud of smoke exploded out from the wall behind Akako, blotting out everything from view.

Hattori was yelling. Saguru ran forward, expecting to smack straight into plaster, but there was no obstruction at all. Where did the wall go?

When the smoke thinned, it revealed a hallway where the wall had been mere seconds ago. Akako had moved there, wearing a manic, completely uncharacteristic grin.

"Well then, tantei-kun's." Her—his— voice skipped down an octave from one word to the next.

* * *

 _Well, I_ _'ll be damned_. Alex could do nothing but stare in shock for a moment. He had known, intellectually, that the Kaitou KID was a master of disguise. But watching him perfectly impersonate someone he knew—someone who was a girl in an extremely revealing dress, to boot—was a head trip.

Even now, he couldn't see where the edges of the latex mask must be, and it was only logic that told him the KID's Adam's apple (if he truly was male) must be under that chunky black choker. Kaitou KID even had Akako's body language and her sleek confidence down pat. His manic smile was the only detail that broke the illusion.

"Not bad, tanteis," KID said, voice sliding back into Akako's smoky mezzo-soprano. He walked up, his steps silent even in stiletto heels. "And Rider-san, of course. I did enjoy our chat, however short it was."

"We'll have plenty of time to continue it once you're in prison," Alex said. Heiji and Conan had moved to cover KID's back and left; Hakuba was to his right. The thief was completely surrounded.

KID raised one gloved hand and shook his index finger in admonishment. "Ah, but I haven't shown you all my greatest miracle of the evening yet! The one I promised in my note." His grin widened as they all stopped, wary. "Yes, I would suggest not coming closer. I came through water, and I shall leave through fire."

And with that proclamation, he burst into flames.

Alex could feel the scorching heat as he and the others all quite sensibly leapt away, Heiji cursing loudly. Through the smoke he could see the tongues of the inferno reflected in KID's monocle, turning his wide grin red-orange and almost demonic. The fire covered everything from KID's cape to his top hat.

Kaitou KID stood there, a white shadow wreathed in a pillar of flame which stretched from floor to ceiling—and vanished.

Conan ran forward with a cry, only for Heiji to pull him back. "Ya, watch it! It's still burning!" The flames still blazed high where KID had stood, but without fuel it quickly died down into small patches, which they stomped out.

"Thank god this section is tiled instead of carpeted. Or do you think he planned for that?" Saguru said, looking at the black scorch marks on the floor.

"Definitely planned." Conan walked around the perimeter where KID had disappeared, and looked up at the ceiling. There were scorch marks there as well. "Notice how the fire alarm _isn_ _'t_ ringing now."

Something did start ringing then: Hakuba's phone. He answered it. " _What?!_ " he said in response to whatever he heard, and put it on speaker. An officer's frantic voice yelled out above the commotion in the background (Alex could hear Inspector Nakamori bellowing what sounded like Japanese obscenities).

Conan ran for the doors, and was quickly overtaken by Hakuba and Heiji. Alex followed behind them, cursing his lack of Japanese. "What did he say?"

"The censored version? Kaitou KID just reappeared on the top floor in a giant ball of fire," Saguru told him.

" _What?_ But he was just here a moment ago!" They were on the first basement floor; how could KID have gotten to the very top so quickly?

"He's in the perfect position to use his hang glider from there," Heiji said as they sped up the stairs and out the main lobby entrance, into the open courtyard. "I'd hate to say it, but the thief's pretty much in the clear."

* * *

Ueno Park was even more crowded than usual, thanks to the publicized heist. The usual volume of tourists was outnumbered by the Kaitou KID fans, waiting in support of their idol. A great cheer rose when a distinctive figure took off from a window on the top floor of the Metropolitan Art Museum. KID glided over the oblong fountain in the middle of the park, then made a sharp right turn along the main thoroughway.

"Looks like he's heading towards Shinobazu pond," Conan noted. He and Alex were tracking KID by themselves through the crowd; Hakuba had stayed behind to talk to the police, while Heiji had gone in a different direction 'to fetch something'. "Though he could turn again at any time and head to the subway station."

A loud _vroom_ came as Heiji pulled up on a black motorbike. He tossed a skateboard to Conan, and took off again in KID's direction. Conan followed on his skateboard, somehow managing to keep up with his friend's sixty horsepower motorcycle.

"Seriously, where _is_ that kid getting all of his wonderful toys from?" Alex said aloud to no one in particular. Lacking either a motorcycle or any source of transportation with wheels, he continued on foot, feeling a little redundant.

Everyone had their eyes on the white thief in the sky. Only Alex, unused to the sight of the park after dark and still gathering his bearings, saw the small, bright glint come from the roof of the concert hall nearby and recognized it for what it was.

Moonlight, reflecting off the scope of a sniper rifle. He started sprinting as fast as he could. The scar on his chest seemed to twinge in memory.

He reached into his pocket to call Saguru, but his cell phone wasn't there. Alex groaned and patted his other pockets, with no luck; his phone must have dropped out sometimes during the antics of the heist. It was probably in a random corner somewhere back at the museum.

Alex ran through the glass doors of the concert hall and stopped short as an attendant in a suit politely blocked his way. The middle-aged Japanese man blinked as he took in Alex's age and appearance—not wearing shoes, hair a complete mess, clothes torn and covered with strangely coloured goop—and said hesitantly: "Wagner?"

"No, I'm not here for opera. There's a gunman on your roof," Alex said. The man looked blank. Alex tried to think of what Japanese he knew and gestured with his hands. "Uhm, danger? Gun! Ka-i-to-u KID-to, roof!"

"Kaitou KID?" The attendant pointed back out the door. " _T_ _ōkyōto Bijutsukan_?"

There followed a short period of failed charade attempts and mutual incomprehension, because apparently Alex had been naive to assume that he wouldn't need to know the Japanese words for _gun, sniper, police_ or _assassin_ on this trip. Finally Alex gave up and ran back outside. KID was still flying above the square, occasionally turning this way or that to dodge what looked like some incredibly aggressive soccer balls and other objects kicked by Conan. The thief's constantly changing trajectory must be what was keeping the sniper from shooting. Alex squinted up at the rooftop, and thought he could make out a dark lump near the front of the building.

There was no time. Alex moved to the back of the building, found a striated section of the wall, and began to climb. The section ended a few feet below the roof edge, but the top ledge was wide enough for him to stand on and reach the top. He briefly wondered if the sniper had gotten up this way too.

Alex levered himself over the lip of the concert hall roof. There was a giant concrete cube in the middle, and he had managed to come up behind it. On the opposite side, a male figure dressed in all black lied flat on the roof, one hand making minute adjustments to the rifle he was aiming into the night sky.

Music filtered up through the cube from the performance below him: a crescendo of instruments and voices, all sturm and strang. It was enough to cover the sound he had made climbing up. Still, Alex crouched low to the ground, slowly inching towards the sniper.

He managed to make it to several feet away from his target, when the sniper pulled the trigger.

* * *

Alex heard the shot, abandoned his plan of sneaking up, and ran out to the sniper.

The man heard him and spun around from his position on the ground, raising his rifle. He hesitated for a second upon registering that his attacker was a teenager, but it was all Alex needed to rush forward, push the rifle away and land a kick before the shooter could get up.

It connected, though the impact was lessened as the man twisted to avoid it, and the shooter continued the movement to sweep Alex's legs out from under him. He dodged Alex's punch, Alex in turn avoided the retaliatory knee to the groin, and a silent but vicious fight commenced on the rooftop.

He had the advantage of not starting from a prone position, but the other man was stronger, and a professional. They rolled over once, twice. The sniper ended up above Alex, and slammed a hard hit right on his ribs with the butt of the sniper rifle.

Alex's vision went blurry from pain. He forced himself to keep moving, using his left arm to block the following strike. His next kick actually hit his opponent straight in the chest, forcing the man to stumble back a little.

Then for the second time that night, the man in front of Alex suddenly burst into flames.

Alex dropped and rolled away as fast as he could, but none of the fire caught onto his clothes. The sniper, who was not as lucky, was starting to turn into a human torch. Unlike KID in the museum, the fire on him burned pure red with no traces of orange or yellow. It also persisted despite all of the man's screaming attempts to put it out.

The rooftop door slammed open, and people filtered out. Alex recognized the attendant he had tried to speak to before. Luckily, the current situation required no words. The man spoke rapidly to one of his coworkers, who ran down and returned carrying a fire extinguisher.

It took two attempts for them to put out the flames, for both the fire and the burning man were uncooperative. By the time they were done, the area was covered in extinguisher foam, and the sniper was unconscious.

Luckily, one of the other attendants did speak English, so Alex explained enough to persuade them to give him a phone instead of detaining him for more questions.

He called Saguru as fast as he could. "Hakuba, is KID okay?"

"Alex, where are you?" Saguru's voice was grim. "KID was shot, and then he disappeared. It's chaos here right now. Where did you go?"

"I found the sniper," Alex said, and told him what had happened. "They're giving him first aid right now. You can come pick him up, but I don't think he can be questioned right now."

"I'll send some officers over. Alex, you should come back here. "

* * *

Conan and Heiji found Hakuba Saguru back in the lobby of the Tokyo Met Museum. The police were busy managing the crowds, which had turned nervous and unruly in the aftermath of the shooting. Alex Rider soon joined them, looking like he had just came from a hard fight.

"Kaitou KID just disappeared? How?" he asked.

"Conan-kun and I were following KID along the river," Heiji answered. "We saw him get shot, in the stomach it looked like. He started falling toward the ground, and then there was a big flash and he was just _gone_."

Conan felt a wave of nausea rise at the memory. He had seen the figure in white suddenly jerk and lose control of the hang glider, a red rose blooming across the man's midsection. KID began plummeting towards the ground, but before he hit there was a blinding flash, and the thief vanished without a trace.

No. This wouldn't help. "He was clearly above the tree line, and the nearest pursuing helicopter was still a good distance away," Conan said, pacing back and forth in a short line before them as he tried to think things through logically. "It's not KID's style to fake being shot, but where could he have gone?"

Inspector Nakamori's men were searching the area in a spiral pattern, and they had alerted the hospitals, but Conan had the nasty suspicion that KID would avoid those even if he was seriously hurt. With the sniper in custody but unavailable to be questioned, there was nothing for them to do. Nothing but to wait and go over the events of the evening again, trying to make sense of it all.

He looked to Alex. "What did the sniper look like?"

"I didn't get a good look," Alex admitted.

"Didn't you see him at close range?"

"Well, first I was fighting him and trying too hard not to die to admire his features. And then he kind of… spontaneously combusted."

"Sorry, my English vocabulary isn't that advanced," Heiji said. "I didn't quite catch that." Conan made a whooshing sound and mimicked flames with his fingers. Heiji blinked. "He caught on fire?"

"Yeah, his whole body did. I have no idea why. He's pretty badly burned, though. I don't know if you'll be able to identify him from his face right now."

"What about his clothes?"

Alex shrugged. "Also burnt, but it looked like standard sniper gear. All black, light padding—" he saw Conan and Heiji exchange glances, and quickly added: "You know, like how they look on TV."

"Fire again," Hakuba said, mulling over what Alex had told them. "Like KID's trick earlier?"

Alex shook his head. "No, the fire this time was different. It burned all red, and with almost no smoke." He gave a quick summary of his fight on the roof of the Bunka Kaikan concert hall, and how it had ended.

Metal salts were used to produce coloured fire, Conan recalled. Strontium compounds gave red flames. But it didn't make any sense. Why would the sniper carry strontium to a shooting? On the other hand, technicoloured fire was exactly the kind of thing Kaitou KID would have loved to use, except KID definitely had no knowledge of the sniper, or _he wouldn_ _'t have gotten shot_.

"Saguru-kun!" There was a clatter of heels as the redheaded girl KID had impersonated—Koizumi Akako, Hakuba's girlfriend, he recalled—ran up to them. "Was that a shot?"

Hakuba moved towards the girl as if he was about to embrace her, but remembered that they were in public at the last moment and placed his hands on her shoulders instead.

"They're saying that KID got shot."

"It's still unclear at the moment. We're currently investigating, but he did manage to get away." Hakuba stepped away and gestured an officer over. "You should head home, Akako-san. Officer Nakamura will escort you back. I'll call you later."

The girl opened her mouth to say something, changed her mind and complied. She looked back at them as she walked away, an expression Conan couldn't quite interpret on her face.

Hakuba coughed. "Let's go back to where KID's conflagration happened. There might be some clues about how it was done."

* * *

The hallway in the basement felt deserted, like a stage show after the audience had all gone. Soot and scorch marks still marked the area where the thief had burst into flames and vanished, a stark reminder of KID's final trick before the fateful shot.

Conan nudged Heiji. "Hey, give me a boost." Heiji lifted him up onto his shoulders so that he could take a look at the ceiling. "Ya think he escaped by going through the ceiling panels?"

"It's either that or the floor; all of his other sides were covered by us."

Hakuba and Alex Rider both knelt down and began to examine the floor. "I found something," Hakuba said after a moment, tapping the spot where KID had stood when he vanished. It sounded distinctly hollower than the surrounding tiles.

Heiji lowered Conan, and they all crowded around the spot. "Trap door," Conan said. "Kaitou KID raised the flames as cover, then dropped down it." As long as KID moved fast enough, it would have looked like he vanished in the inferno. The flames left behind and the still-hot tiles would have prevented them from finding the trap door immediately.

"Hmm. There's not enough room in the flooring for a tunnel, so he would have just ended up on the basement level below us," Heiji said, thinking. "He would still have to get all the way from there to the top floor without being seen in like two minutes."

"One minute and twenty-three seconds," Hakuba corrected. "That's how long it was between the time KID vanished and when we got the call about his reappearance."

Heiji smacked his fist into his palm. "The elevator shaft! Alex and I blocked the entrance on this floor, but it's open on the floor below, and it's close by."

"If KID set up some sort of pulley system, he could get to the top floor in time using the elevator shaft. The timing is incredibly tight, but it's possible. I still don't know how he managed to make that fake wall, though." There was also another explanation for how KID had seemingly managed to teleport himself, Conan thought. He wondered if Hakuba had thought of it yet.

"Well, that's one mystery solved, I guess," Alex said. He shook his head. "This entire night has been crazy. I still can't believe he managed to pass himself off as Akako, of all people."

"And you said you heard her heels," Heiji scoffed, pacing restlessly back and forth. "Can't you even tell when it's your own girlfriend or not, Hakuba?"

"If I recall correctly, I wasn't the one who swore KID didn't have time to change into a dress like that, Hattori-kun," Hakuba shot back, tone polite but voice frigid.

"Oh my god. Seriously, guys?" Alex looked at the pair of them, both wound up and looking for a convenient target. "You're both being beaten in maturity by an eight year old right now. What is _up_ with you two?"

"Hakuba-niichan and Heiji-niichan once competed against each other in a deduction battle!" The mature eight year old chimed in helpfully. "Hakuba-niichan called Heiji-niichan hot-blooded and insulted his detective skills, but then he thought the wrong person was the murderer and Heiji-niichan didn't." He paused, and continued more seriously: "Also, I think it's easier for them to blame each other than to admit that they're both worried sick right now."

"Oi, _B_ _ōzu_ …"

"Edogawa-kun." The coldness had gone from Hakuba's manner. Now he just looked tired.

"I am too," he said, letting his childish tone dilute the weight of his words. Heiji wasn't fooled, and gave him a long look.

"I still maintain that Hattori-kun is too hot blooded," Hakuba said lightly, steering the conversation into less emotionally fraught waters. "The Detective Koushien ended up getting derailed, so I wouldn't exactly call the results indicative."

Heiji grinned, showing teeth. "I'm up for a rematch if you are. Say after your exams are finished?"

"Done. I'll keep an eye out for a suitable case."

"I will as well," Heiji said. Then he sighed. "I just wish there was something to do _now_."

From the look on Alex's face, he agreed as well. "What about the sniper's gear? Is there anything we can learn from that?"

"Forensics is working on it. They told me they had to lift fingerprints from the sniper rifle itself, since the shooter's hands were badly burnt," Hakuba said. Then: "The other bullets in the rifle had been coated with Teflon."

 _Oh_. No wonder Hakuba had been so touchy, Conan thought. The coldness in his stomach seemed to have solidified into ice.

"You guys are all extremely worried," Alex said, looking at them all closely. "And all for a thief."

"KID…he doesn't kill, doesn't even hurt his pursuers, and he returns what he steals," Heiji said. "Hakuba and Conan-kun have chased him far more than I have, but even for me it's a relief from the usual killers we go after."

"More of a rival than an enemy, you can say," Hakuba admitted. "I guess you don't have anyone like that."

There was a short silence. "No. No, I don't," Alex said flatly.

Well, there was definitely a story there. Hakuba looked like he regretted his words.

Continuing on like this would do nothing but make them all pissed off at each other. Conan gave a yawn that was only half-feigned. "Ah, it's way past my bedtime." He looked up at the others. "If KID is alright, he'll return the target brooch as soon as he can. The police station will be the first place to get any new updates either way, so let's go there instead. As much as I hate to say it, there isn't much more we can do here tonight."

* * *

 **A/N:** As always, thanks for reading and for all the lovely comments/reviews! The next chapter should clear up any lingering confusion about what exactly happened and wrap up the heist arc.


	5. Chapter 5: Ripples

**Chapter 5** **:** **Ripples**

Officer Nakamura escorted the young lady who was Hakuba-san's significant other right up to the doorstop of her Gothic mansion. Once he drove away, the redhead lightly fiddled with the doorknob, hesitating on the threshold before finally stepping through with confident long strides.

Those strides took the crimson clad figure up the twisting stairs and into the darkly lit living room, before halting at the hissing sounds as two hooded strands of black slipped out to block the way, and at the sight of the girl lying on the couch they guarded.

The two figures stared, their features perfect mirrors of each other. One standing with a pale face in the infamous scarlet dress, the other wearing an even more infamous white tuxedo, now torn about the middle and disfigured with blotches of darkening red.

The full moon shone down on the strange tableau for a moment. Then—

"Akako, _what have you done_?"

Akako weakly waved a hand and her cobras retreated back into the shadows. "I'm…fine now. We took out the bullet. It missed anything vital." She sounded hoarse, and Kaito could barely hear her.

There was a pile of bloodied cloth on the coffee table in front of her, he saw, along with a basin of rust-coloured water and various glass bottles that smelled strongly of herbs. Her top hat had fallen behind the couch, and a copy of his signature monocle was lying among the stained bandages. Kaito sighed, and with a snap of his fingers changed to his bare face, casual jeans and a t-shirt.

"I brought some first aid supplies, and I can try to find a discreet doctor." Jii would know someone. A hospital was out of the question with everyone on the lookout for a gunshot victim, but he could go and steal some medicine from one if necessary.

Akako shook her head. "My way is more effective. Look." She pulled back the ripped edges of her blue dress shirt, exposing the ugly red welt of a bullet wound that looked days old, and not hours fresh.

"Your way," Kaito echoed. "You set a man on fire."

" _He shot me._ "

Kaito conceded the point with a nod. "Alex Rider was there too. He could have been burned as well."

"I have better control over my powers than that. The flames are only for the one who spilled my blood."

The mansion's demonic manservant came in, cradling a landline phone in one large, misshapen hand. "Mistress, there is a telephone call for you. He says he is Hakuba Saguru."

What little blood there was left in Akako's face drained out. She stared at the phone like it was cursed. "…Tell him I'm sleeping." Her manservant bowed and left, presumably to comply.

"Tantei-san's going to get suspicious," Kaito pointed out the obvious. "I don't think he's seen through our second switch or there'd be sirens blazing outside your house right now, but if you keep on avoiding him Hakuba's going to guess the truth."

Akako winced. "Ah, I really don't want to be arrested by my own boyfriend."

"He was pretty concerned about you this evening." Kaito remembered the detective's unexpected almost-embrace, meant for the real Akako. There was genuine regard there, not that he would have expected Hakuba to enter a relationship for shallow reasons, but…"How much does Hakuba knows about your powers?"

"About as much as you do, but Saguru-kun's agreed not to pry into them."

"Ah. And where does 'using your powers to help the internationally wanted thief he's trying to catch' fall under?"

"…That hasn't come up yet."

"You _really_ didn't think this through, did you." Kaito's anger burned cool—he did not scream or shout; instead he focused on what made him mad and how to make it disappear. "Did you have to go this far, Akako? I did not need your help. Now you've gotten _shot_ , and tantei-san may be hurt in the future as well."

"If I hadn't made that illusion you would have been cornered!" She protested, then winced from the sudden movement. "And in the wrong position to perform your little fire trick."

"I would have thought of something."

"Really? With both Saguru and Edogawa Conan there together, each of whom have come close to catching you by themselves? Along with Hattori Heiji, and Alex Rider, and that sniper who was waiting in the shadows? You have the luck of fools and madmen, Kuroba-kun, but how far can you push it before it runs out?" She may no longer be in love with him, but Kaito was one of the precious few friends Akako had. It still made him hers. She wasn't going to let him get caught, and she certainly wasn't going to let him get himself killed. Get himself _or_ Saguru killed.

"You're not going to stop, are you?" he said softly.

"Not as long as you keep on doing things this recklessly. That bullet had been coated with Teflon."

"And it was meant for me. I know. This was my heist, and my risk to take, Akako. I knew how dangerous tonight was going to be, and I still went through with it." He had to go through with it. Canceling would have been the same as letting those bastards win. "No one else should be taking KID's part in any of this."

"Not even your friends?"

"Especially not them." He had thought that allowing Akako to leave from the roof in KID's guise while he took on her appearance again would let them both escape without suspicion. _A black shadow awaits, and the white thief is shot down from the sky._ "I am sorry, Akako. I forgot that one figure in white looks much the same as another from a distance."

"At least you're taking my visions more seriously now," Akako said, sounding more mollified. Then she remembered: "Hells Kuroba-kun, I'm going to have to go to school on Monday. _Why_ did you have to schedule this right before finals?"

It was the only full moon while the Tiffany exhibit was in Tokyo that didn't collide with either theirs or Hattori's exam schedules, but Kaito didn't say that.

Akako sighed, and leaned back gingerly. "Well, did you at least get what you set up this evening for?"

After only a moment of hesitation, Kaito drew out the stolen salamander brooch, and she stared. "Wow. I don't think I've seen anything that tacky since great-aunt Dimity's voodoo scalp collection."

"Akako, your house looks like it came straight out of a bad horror movie." He raised the brooch to a small patch of moonlight let in by the thick velvet curtains. When a full minute had passed and nothing happened, he sighed and tucked it back out of sight.

"Well, are you going to tell me what you're looking for?" Akako demanded.

Kaito looked at her sidelong. "I find it hard to imagine that you haven't already tried to find out."

"I have," she admitted.

"And you still don't know?"

"The spirit I asked refused to answer. Apparently ' _It_ _'s not ours_ '," Akako mimicked, looking very put out. She stopped talking to catch her breath, looking expectantly at Kaito.

"Only if you promise that you will not go after it yourself," Kaito said. It was a harsh measure, but a necessary one. "This I will need a blood oath for, Miss Witch."

Akako sat there unmoving for what felt like several minutes. Kaito couldn't tell if the tense line of her jaw was from pain or from thought. He was surprised that she was even considering it; the Akako he had first met would not have agreed to give up a chance to gain more power for herself. But that Akako also would not have dated Hakuba without coercion (he was still scratching his head over that one), or have taken a bullet while helping Kaito.

"Agreed," she finally said, gritting her teeth as she sat up straight on the couch. "Give me your hand."

He hadn't meant _right now_. Poker face firmly in place, Kaito knelt in front of her and offered up his left hand. She took it in her own right hand while her left moved to her abdomen, underneath the rip in her dress shirt and pressed hard against the wound there. When she withdrew her hand the tips of her fingers gleamed with fresh blood.

With one move she began to sketch a pentacle in liquid crimson on the back of Kaito's hand. "By this blood and the blood still within her, Koizumi Akako vows not to look for, pursue or acquire the gem which Kuroba Kaito seeks without his explicitly stated permission, and only in the manner which he permits." She did not break eye contact. "Satisfied?"

Kaito looked for loopholes in her oath and couldn't think of any. "Yes."

Akako finished drawing and released his hand. Her blood pentacle vanished into his skin, leaving it spotless. Kaito stared at it, hoping he didn't look as unnerved as he felt.

Well, she had fulfilled her part of the bargain; it was time to complete his. "Me and the crows responsible for tonight are looking for a gem called Pandora which will supposedly weep tears of immortality under the passing of a specific comet. According to the legend it's hidden inside another jewel, and will glow red under the full moon." Spoken in this Gothic mansion to an honest-to-goodness witch, the words sounded less ridiculous than they would have otherwise.

"Do you mean _carmot_?" Akako said after a moment's thought.

"What?"

"A red stone which produces the elixir of life and can turn lead into gold. It's most commonly known as the Philosopher's Stone, though there are many names for it." Akako thought again. "You know, I think one of them may even be Pandora. But the part about being a gem with an inclusion does not match with the legend, nor does glowing red under the light of the full moon."

"Have you heard of any gems with legends of immortality attached to them?"

Akako shook her head slowly. "Carmot is the only one I can think of right now for stones. There are other legends about acquiring immortality, of course: eating the flesh of a mermaid, or mystical peaches, or ambrosia, if you go with Western mythology, but eternal life is harder to achieve than you might think. Oh, _I_ haven't tried to seek it myself, but there are many tales of others who have tried, and failed."

"I don't want it for myself," Kaito said. "Only to keep it away from others who would stop at nothing to take it for themselves."

"The crows from tonight? Well, I'm on board with that." Akako's gaze narrowed. "How about this, Kuroba-kun? I'll use all my resources to find information about this Pandora gem for you. In exchange, I want a few of its shards for study if you do find it."

"I thought you weren't interested in eternal life?" Kaito said, wary.

"I do not want to live forever, but I wouldn't say no to a few extra decades if the option was available."

Akako would have access to far more information in this particular topic than he ever would, given that sorcery was her domain. But how far did he trust her blood oath? It must have some effectiveness, or Akako wouldn't have bothered asking for his permission now that she knew about Pandora.

"Koizumi Akako, I give you permission to help me seek the gem called Pandora, in exchange for four of its shards in the eventuality that I acquire it and find some way of destroying it," Kaito said, taking care with his words. He felt a warm twinge on the back of his left hand, where the blood oath lay under his skin.

This was either going to blow up in his face or give him the breakthrough on Pandora he desperately needed. "I'll go and return the brooch before the tanteis get too frantic. Get some rest, Akako. Contact me through my doves if you need anything."

Kaito left, and headed straight for the police station. The night was still young, and the longer Hakuba was distracted by 'accidentally' mixed-up paperwork the less time he had to properly think about tonight's heist and the discrepancies that logic couldn't explain.

* * *

At two o'clock in the morning, the Tiffany salamander arrived at the police station in a white gift box with an accompanying doodle of KID. Saguru was so relieved that he finally relented and allowed Alex to drag him home, leaving the mountain of paperwork for later that day.

Or so he planned. Once he woke up, Saguru discovered that Alex had somehow managed to suborn Baaya while he slept, and both of them refused to let him return to the station on the grounds that he had final exams the next day.

"It's an _English_ exam," Saguru had protested.

"And Chemistry, in the afternoon," said Alex pleasantly. "Can you imagine what Ai would say if you botched your Chem after what we did in Lymstock? Or your mother, for that matter?"

This, Saguru thought irately, was what happened when you let a spy into your house.

But school did offer another opportunity, though he didn't tell Alex what it was. On Monday morning he and Alex went to school early, waiting outside the gates for the others to arrive.

Akako arrived first, and lighted up when she saw him. She looked wan, and was wearing more makeup than normal, Saguru noted. "Did you stay up late, Akako?"

She startled. "What? Oh, yes. I had to work really hard…to cram. Oh seven hells, I'm going to fail analysis."

" _Ohayou_!" There was Aoko and Kaito, walking up together as usual. Kuroba certainly didn't move like he was seriously injured, but then again he was a phenomenal actor.

"No acrobatics today, Kuroba-kun?" Saguru had to ask. "Not even a cartwheel, for luck?"

Kaito gave him a look. "Well, if you insist…" He performed three perfect cartwheels in a row, backwards and forwards. His uniform shirt slipped down during the last one, earning a blush from Aoko. His exposed torso had neither bandages nor any signs of recent wounds.

Kaito finished with an exaggerated bow. "What, no applause?" he asked Saguru.

Saguru gave a few short claps, frustrated. Alex looked between them, detecting the undercurrent even if he didn't understand what they were saying.

Later, he cornered Hakuba in the basement as soon as he returned to the mansion after school. "What where you trying to do this morning, with Kuroba?"

Saguru deliberated. To tell or not to tell…"I was checking for a bullet wound," he said, slowly.

Alex's brown eyes widened as he caught on to the implications. "And did you find one?" he asked.

Saguru shook his head. "I have no proof. If you ask around, you will find that Kuroba Kaito once spent the entirety of a KID heist handcuffed to my wrist. Not to mention that he was obviously uninjured today. So he could not possibly be KID. Do you understand?"

"Ah, I see." Alex stared at one of the paintings on the wall as little details about class clown Kuroba Kaito were suddenly cast in a new light. "He's uninjured, with an iron clad alibi for a previous heist, but you still told me about it."

"Yes."

Honestly, Alex wouldn't put it past the phantom thief to be able to come up with some sort of alibi trick to protect his civilian identity. KID could also have faked being shot, though Alex couldn't understand how or why. Then he remembered something.

"I didn't get a chance to tell you, did I? Kaitou KID somehow found out about my activities with MI6. He was questioning me about them when we were alone during the heist."

Saguru was suddenly very glad he had taken certain precautions before this conversation started. "I don't know how he found out, but KID likes to keep an eye on the police and his more notable pursuers. That's part of the reason we regularly sweep for bugs, and why we're having this conversation here in the basement with the white noise generators running." One of the advantages of being the heir to a forensics technology company was getting to test out the latest prototypes.

"And I didn't just imagine Conan and Heiji's hints about me during the heist, did I?" Alex asked. Saguru shook his head. " _How_ do people keep finding out about me?!"

"I told you before that if I could deduce your past, there are others who would be able to as well, and I'm afraid Edogawa-kun and Hattori are both in that category," Saguru said. "You may want to consider speaking to your former handlers about hiding the trail better."

* * *

"Wow," Heiji leaned back into his comfy love-seat in the basement of the Kudo mansion, eyeing the files in front of him with distaste. "So we were right 'bout Alex Rider, and I kinda wish we weren't."

Jodie had found the information Conan asked for much faster than either of them expected—part of him wondered what kind of favours she had to call in (or promise) in order to get these files so quickly. Now that they had it, Heiji and Conan were digesting what she had dug up on Alex Rider, and finding certain parts hard to swallow.

"To summarize, MI6 had recruited an unwilling fourteen year old, probably using some form of blackmail or coercion given what's carefully not being said, and sent him on a series of missions that I would have found improbable had I come across them in my dad's novels," Conan said. "Despite overwhelming odds, he managed to not only survive but succeed, every time. So they kept on sending him out, even loaning him to the CIA on one occasion, until he was too broken to be used anymore."

Heiji had let loose some rather creative invectives when he first read through the files. Conan felt slightly sick. He had _liked_ the CIA, liked Hidemi Hondou despite the ruthlessness he knew she would need to survive as a double agent in the Organization.

For the first time, he wondered what else an intelligence agency that was willing to let an operative kill her own father in order to keep her cover would do to achieve its goals. What he may have to condone, if he continued on this path to bring down the Syndicate.

A troubled Jodie had told him the FBI had once tried to create their own teenage spy, and failed spectacularly. Conan was suddenly very glad that Shuichi Akai (in his Subaru Okiya identity) was out of the house for the day.

"Ya, Kudo," Heiji said slowly after Conan told him. "Has it occurred to ya that…maybe we're attempt number two?"

It had. "Does it matter?" Edogawa Conan—no, Kudo Shinichi looked back at him. "I swore that I would take down the Org if it's the last thing I ever did. That hasn't changed."

"I was working alongside with Jodie _-s_ _ō_ _sakan_ and Akai-san and the others as equals. I don't believe…I don't want to believe that the FBI saw me as a tool. But if they did…you can't say that I've been an unwilling one." He had a choice. Alex hadn't.

Heiji riffled the pages of the file absently. "So we'll continue on as before, then?"

"I'm still going to do my best to destroy the Syndicate. So will the FBI, and the CIA. I don't see any reason to change our working relationship."

"And what 'bout Hakuba n' Alex Rider? They're trying ta find out what happened to ya, Kudo."

"I'll warn Mom and Dad so they don't accidentally reveal anything. But luckily, they both look to be very logical people." Conan gave a deprecating smile. "I don't think either of them would ever believe that I've been somehow turned into an eight year old, even if they notice the similarities between Kudo Shinichi and Edogawa Conan. And it's not like I'll be seeing them much, now that the KID heist is over."

"…"

"Hattori? What is it?"

"Ah, I was goin' ta tell ya, Kudo," Heiji said hesitantly. "I've found just the case fer trouncin' Hakuba in that rematch he's insistin' on. I was gonna ask if ya wanted to come along. But if ya think it might blow yer cover…"

Conan saw the danger—it would put him in close proximity with both Hakuba Saguru and Alex Rider again. "What's the case, exactly?"

"It's an inheritance case—figurin' out whose gonna be the heir to a fortune. It's taking place at this castle hotel on a semi-tropical island off Kagoshima. The client is a rep from some fancy Swiss bank, so yunno: all expenses paid, an' then some."

That did sound tempting. Once Heiji was done, he could go have fun on the white sandy beaches and in the sparkling azure waters. It would practically be a vacation. Conan sighed. "…Ah what the hell. They shouldn't suspect anything as long as I'm careful. I'll come and cheer you on, and maybe even solve it before either of you two do." He snickered. "As long as you stop almost calling me Kudo, I should be fine."

Besides, Hakuba would be distracted by his rivalry with Heiji, Conan thought as the Osakan protested. The half-British detective did have a tendency to hyper-focus on one thing at a time. Between the case they were hired for and the island paradise setting, neither Hakuba nor Alex Rider would have much time to spare to wonder about what had happened to Kudo Shinichi.

* * *

In a nondescript office of the Cadmus International Accounting firm building in Los Angeles, deputy director Joe Byrne of the CIA Covert Action section was about to have the other side of the conversation regarding Alex Rider and Edogawa Conan.

"Mr. Black," he greeted the grey haired man who entered the room. "Thank you for agreeing to this meeting." Relations between the CIA and FBI were often strained at best, but in Byrne's opinion a little courtesy never hurt.

Agent James Black of the FBI returned his firm handshake, and sat down. "You wanted to see me about one of my agents?"

"Yes, just a small question I wanted to clear up." Byrne flipped open a file, more to occupy his hands than out of need to read the papers there. "I understand that one of your subordinates—a Miss Starling—recently asked us for information about a certain Alex Rider. I would like to understand the context behind that request." He smiled. "I have something of a personal interest in the welfare of Mr. Rider, you see."

Truth to be told, the use of Alex Rider—by both MI6 and his own agency—had never sat well with Joe Byrne. The boy had been a phenomenal agent, but Byrne had still given a private breath of relief when he learned that Alex had left that world behind. With Alan Blunt retired from MI6, he thought that Alex would finally get the chance to be the normal teenage boy he should have been.

Then Blunt's successor Mrs. Jones had contacted him with the request to keep an eye on Alex, along with a brief but troubling summary of Alex's recent adventures in Lymstock, including the apparent resurrection of the assassin called Yassen Gregorovitch. Byrne knew that Alex was currently in Japan; the request for information about Alex originated from Japan as well. Joe Byrne sighed. Alex Rider may be finished with the intelligence world, but it looked like the intelligence world wasn't finished with him.

"Yes, Jodie asked for the information on Alex Rider as a favour for someone else." Black paused. "You are aware of the details of the Hondou operation, and how the FBI ended up becoming involved as well?"

Byrne remembered. It had been somewhat of a fiasco, what with the two agencies screwing up each other's plans due to lack of communication. "Yes. An unfortunate debacle, but it was resolved in the end. Our agent was able to re-infiltrate the Syndicate with your help."

"The person who requested the information on Alex Rider was an invaluable help, not just in enabling Kir's successful return to the Syndicate, but in several other operations against the Black Organization, despite not being an agent himself," Black explained. "As such, Jodie thought it was proper to pay back the favour, and I agreed."

"And just who is this invaluable civilian helper?" Byrne asked. James Black visibly hesitated. Interesting.

"His name is Conan Edogawa," he finally relented.

Byrne studied him, and searched the name on his computer. Several articles showed up in Japanese, and Byrne scanned them. To the public, Edogawa Conan was primarily known for facing off against the phantom thief called Kaitou KID, but it wasn't that piece of information which made Byrne's blood pressure suddenly spike.

"Mr. Black," he said slowly. "Please tell me that there is another Edogawa Conan in Japan who is the civilian helper that you are talking about. _Someone who isn_ _'t an eight year old boy._ "

"No, that's him," Black said. "Now, I know how this must look, but—"

"But nothing!" Byrne exploded. " _What the hell_? Didn't you FBI learn from your previous screw-up? You guys got a teenager killed trying to infiltrate a drug ring, so the next time you decide to use a child?!"

"The FBI is not using Conan; it's a partnership." Byrne gave a snort of derision. "I am not lying. Conan was the one who figured out that Hidemi Hondou was one of your NOCs. He independently deduced Vermouth's identity. He was instrumental in preventing the Org from retrieving Kir from the hospital before we were ready, and he and Akai together came up with the strategy to plant her back. You can ask Kir herself to verify this, if you don't believe me." Black looked back at him, utterly sincere. "Conan Edogawa may have the body of the child, but I haven't met a mind that sharp since Akai."

"I don't care how fucking brilliant the kid is, you can't force him to fight for you—"

"We are not forcing him! Look, I've read the file Jodie received on Alex Rider. Reading between the lines, it's pretty bloody clear that MI6 coerced him into doing their dirty work. That is not what's happening here. If the FBI and CIA withdrew their operations against the Syndicate tomorrow, Conan would continue fighting against them. _By himself_ , if it came down to that. He wants Them taken down, just as badly as we do."

Joe Byrne could feel the migraine brewing. "So you're saying, that during all this time while I was cursing Alan Blunt for using a teenage agent, we've been doing the same with _an_ _eight year old_?" Then it struck him. "And he's the one who requested information about Alex. Oh dear Lord."

* * *

LookingforAlaska: The sniper is currently unconscious and under police guard in the hospital. He's going to be there for a while, I'm afraid—there was too much going on in this chapter for me to fit him in.

 **A/N** : And that pretty much wraps up the heist arc! The next chapter is going to be delayed, I'm afraid–I want to have most of the mystery arc written ahead to avoid gaping plot holes. Given my current writing speed, I'm estimating that it'll take about a month, more or less. I considered spreading the break out earlier, but I didn't want to leave a long update between cliffhangers.

This chapter ended up having a lot more sowing of long term plot threads and repercussions than I expected. The last scene pretty much wrote itself once I realized that in this crossover Joe Byrne would have knowledge, and probably oversight over Kir and the CIA's operations in Japan.

As always, thank you all for reading, and for your reviews!


	6. Chp 6: The Case of the Missing Detective

**Chapter 6** : **The Case of the Missing Detective**

"Well, it looks like Hattori and I will be having that rematch quite soon," Saguru told Alex one afternoon a few days after the KID heist.

"I can't wait," Alex said dryly. "What is it? Who can solve a string of serial murders the fastest, while firing off the best insults?"

"Nothing quite that bloody, I hope. It's an inheritance case: seeing which one of us can figure out who's the beneficiary of a fortune first. I don't know the exact details yet—the client won't tell us without both of us signing a non-disclosure agreement beforehand—but I do know everyone involved will be gathered at a hotel on an island together."

"Really?"

Saguru shrugged. "She's from the Swiss bank which is managing the fortune, apparently. They take both their privacy and customer service very seriously. The island is supposed to be semi-tropical, with some nice beaches, so if nothing else we should be able to spend a few days relaxing and enjoying the scenery."

That sounded pretty nice—if Saguru and Hattori started bickering again Alex could go jump into the waves. Then he remembered:

"Wait. What about Shinichi Kudo? You already signed up to solve the case of the missing teen detective, remember?"

"I can multi-task," Saguru said. "Suzuki-san didn't give a hard deadline, plus the rematch won't be happening until my summer break starts." He grinned. "Also, didn't you say you wanted to acquire some investigative skills? You can help me with Kudo."

"I'll do all the hard work and you'll take all the credit, I see how it is."

"Trust me, I would much rather be out investigating than studying for Physics," Saguru sighed, and went back to his practice questions on gravitational forces and projectiles.

So in the next two week while Saguru, Akako and the others took their exams and finished up the last of their classes before the summer break, Alex split his time between trying to learn Japanese as quickly as possible and looking into the missing Kudo Shinichi. He explored Tokyo using as little English to get by as he could, spent hours poring over vocabulary lists and grammar rules, and practiced conversing with Baaya during the day and with Saguru once he returned from school. It felt like he was trying to free-climb a cliff, but he remembered the chaos of the KID heist and had no desire to spend an entire case with no idea what anyone was saying.

In the breaks between language study he dug up Kudo Shinichi's old cases, talked to Sonoko Suzuki again, and had a frustratingly unproductive phone call with the missing teen's parents. "They definitely know _something_ ," he told Saguru that evening. "But Yukiko Kudo keeps chattering on about random gossip and I couldn't even talk to his father because apparently he's hiding from his editors."

"Well, they did leave their son by himself in Japan while they went to live in the States," Saguru said as he read through Alex's notes and their slowly growing case file on Shinichi Kudo—a varied collection of newspaper articles, transcripts, and even a video of one of Kudo's football matches some fan-girl had uploaded to the internet. He paused on a photograph of Kudo as a young child he had managed to find. "Kudo-san looked a lot like Edogawa-kun when he was younger."

Alex looked over. "Huh, you're right. Take the glasses off and they're practically identical. He's Conan's cousin, isn't he?"

"Edogawa-kun said distant cousin, though I would have guessed brother from these pictures. That would better explain their closeness as well. Apparently Kudo-san taught Edogawa-kun everything he knew about being a detective." Riffling through the notes he had taken of Inspector Megure's recollection of the cases Kudo had solved, Saguru had to admit that the Detective of the East had earned his reputation. Still, Saguru personally thought Conan would surpass his mentor once he grew up.

"While we're talking about uncanny similarities—I don't know if you've noticed, Hakuba, but Shinichi Kudo also looks like he could be the twin of your classmate Kuroba, give or take some hair gel."

"Yeah, I've noticed. But I've checked Kuroba's background before, and they're definitely two different people. In case you thought that the teenage detective decided to moonlight as a thief for some reason."

"Bummer."

"Wait." Saguru read through Alex's transcription of his second talk with Sonoko. "So during the time Kudo came back to his school's play to solve a murder, he passed out at one point."

Alex nodded. "I think she said he looked like he was in severe pain for a while, but then it passed and he looked normal again. Hmm. Maybe Kudo's gone away to be treated for some sort of mysterious disease?"

"Why all the secrecy, though?" Japan—like most of Asia—held enough of a stigma against mental illnesses that it could explain the attitudes of Kudo's family and his close friends, but if Kudo Shinichi was being institutionalized somewhere he shouldn't be able to waltz out to solve murders, or go to London on a whim. Saguru sighed in frustration. "There isn't enough data. The one thing I would say for certain is that whatever happened to Kudo, Hattori and Edogawa-kun both know about it."

"Definitely. Heiji Hattori even tried to pass himself off as Kudo at the school play, didn't he?"

Saguru brightened. "Well, I'll be seeing again Hattori for this rematch, and he might even bring Edogawa-kun along with him. I can prod them for information while we're trying to solve this inheritance case."

"Actually," Alex said slowly. "I don't think that's a good idea." Seeing Saguru's questioning expression, he explained further:

"Hattori and Conan are smart, and they both seem dead set on keeping Kudo's secret, whatever the hell it is. I think we might have gone too hard and spooked them at the museum, and now they're wary. They might even be expecting you to try to interrogate them again the next time you see them. So you should do something different. Something less direct."

"You mean…"

"Don't mention anything about Shinichi Kudo while we're on the island with them. Pretend that you've given up on that little mystery, or that you're completely focused on the inheritance business. Keep on observing them in case one of them lets something slip, and we can try to set some sort of trap if the opportunity arises, but give them a chance to let their guards down first."

Saguru raised an eyebrow. "Sneaky."

Alex shrugged. "Sometimes sneaky works better." Saguru was used to interrogating suspects with the force of the law on his side, but in this particular case Alex thought something more in his own line would be more successful. Less direct questioning, and more subterfuge.

* * *

"Father?" Saguru paused in the process of taking off his shoes. Akako, who had just stepped into the entryway behind him, looked up as well.

"Saguru!" Superintendent General Hakuba Noriaki halted on his way down the stairs. From the neatened set of his tie and the briefcase he was carrying, his father was probably on his way out for some meeting. "And who is this young lady?"

Akako bowed formally. "Koizumi Akako, sir. I am a classmate of your son's."

His father's smile was genial enough, though Saguru saw him blink in recognition at her name. "Ah, Koizumi-san! No need to be so polite—Saguru's mother has told me all about you." He scanned her more closely, as if a schoolgirl in her uniform wasn't what his wife's talk had led him to expect.

"We both had a good exam day, so Koizumi-kun and I decided to go to the movies after school to celebrate, and then I asked her to join Alex and I for dinner," Saguru said. The movie was laughably terrible, but whispering to each other about how nonsensical its magic system and so called science was had made the time fly.

His father nodded. "Good, you shouldn't spend all your time on cases and schoolwork, Saguru. I am afraid I can't join you tonight—I'm expected elsewhere. But you kids have fun!"

"Well, he seems to like me much better than your mother did," Akako commented after the Superintendent left. "It's probably a good thing I didn't have time to change out of my school uniform before the movie, isn't it?" She looked at him. "Do you wish he'd stayed to eat with us?"

Saguru shrugged. "Yes and no? This is the first time I've seen him this week, but if Father joined us dinner would be a much more…formal affair." He would have had to manage the impression that he made—that he and Akako made—in front of his father.

"Ah, I think I see." Akako's long red hair swung in front of her face as she knelt to switch out her shoes for a pair of spare house slippers. "I don't see much of my mother either, and it's even more awkward whenever I do because of that."

It was the first time Saguru had heard her speak of her immediate family. "Does she live in Japan?"

"No, last I heard she was up in northern Canada, somewhere around Yukon."

"That far?"

"…How should I put this. My mother's clairvoyance is far more powerful than mine. I love her, but living with her was…do you have any idea what it's like for your mother to berate you for something you haven't even considered doing yet?"

"As it happens, yes, though not quite in those circumstances." Neither of his parents was prescient, but the weight of their achievements and expectations were an invisible mantle he could never take off. Nor was detection his way of escape, the way his mother was convinced it was, even if he had to admit it helped.

They moved into the dining room, where Alex was already impatiently waiting so that they could start dinner. As the three of them dug into Baaya's homemade Sunday roast, Akako commented: "This may be the last time you have proper home-cooked British food for a while, Alex. Kagoshima cuisine can get pretty interesting. You know they have raw chicken sashimi over there?" She laughed at the look on Alex's face.

"I'll pass on that."

"Most people do, even other Japanese," Saguru said. "There should be plenty of good cuisine available there though, not to mention the scenery."

"Palm trees and beaches and tonkatsu. I'm a little jealous," Akako sighed after polishing off her piece of Beef Wellington. "I'll be traveling then too, but just to visit some relatives."

"Your mother?"

"Yes, I think so, and most likely some of my aunts as well." She smiled at Saguru. "The time differences are going to be a pain, but I'll do my best to call."

"It's honestly fine," Saguru told her. "I expect we'll be quite busy anyways."

"Yeah, Hakuba's going to have to work hard if he wants to beat Hattori, whatever the case is," Alex grinned.

Akako looked between them. "You still don't know what the case you're competing on is about?"

"We know it's something to do with an inheritance. The client is coming over to tell us the details tomorrow, so we'll know more then."

"Don't forget Hakuba, we should see if we can find out anything more about Shinichi Kudo before we leave," Alex said. "Honestly, I find that to be the more intriguing mystery. Where on earth could he have vanished off to, and why won't anyone say anything about it?"

Akako's cup of tea paused halfway on its journey to her lips. "The Detective of the East you were talking about? Do you want me to help, Saguru-kun?"

Alex didn't know what lay underneath her casual offer, but Saguru did. Akako could probably find out what had happened to Kudo faster than he could. But it felt like cheating, to use magic as a shortcut in place of logic and deduction. Not to mention, it wasn't nearly as enjoyable for him.

"I want the fun of solving this myself, but thank you," he said. Akako accepted it with a smile and wished him luck. Alex blinked in surprise at the exchange, but any puzzlement was soon forgotten as they chatted—about how the Mansfields were doing now, the movie Akako and Saguru had watched, Alex's experience of Japan so far—enjoying the last time the three of them would be together for a while.

* * *

On the evening after Saguru's school term finished for the summer, he and Alex finally learned the details of the case he would be competing against Heiji to solve.

Enlightenment came in the form of Valeria Scialdone, a middle-aged black woman in a razor sharp business suit. Mrs. Scialdone raised an eyebrow when Saguru insisted on Alex's inclusion but rallied immediately, laying two bundles of paper in front of them. The forms were printed on creamy-white, heavyweight paper, and they were accompanied by equally luxurious fountain pens. "If you two would sign these, please." There was an Italian lilt to her English.

Once the two had read and signed the non-disclosure agreements under her watchful eyes, she stored the forms away in her leather briefcase and relaxed slightly. "You have to understand, the circumstances for this are slightly unusual. Our bank wants to cover all possible liabilities."

"You're hiring competing teenage detectives to figure out an inheritance case," Alex said. "Is there hidden treasure or something?"

"Nothing so exotic, I'm afraid." Her onyx eyes gleamed. "Just a fund worth slightly under ten million pounds at today's exchange rates, give or take." Alex whistled, and she explained:

"The settlor was one Mr. Terence Delacey, an extremely wealthy widower with a fondness for puzzles. He adopted four children, three of whom are still living. Around twenty-five years ago he put some money into a trust fund managed by us with the intention that the beneficiaries will be one of these adoptees. A month ago Mr. Delacey passed peacefully in his sleep, with the majority of his fortune willed to charity, but his instructions for the trust were more peculiar."

"He didn't tell you who to give the money to," Saguru said flatly.

"No. According to the document which we were instructed to open upon his death, the will for the trust is hidden on Kashikijima, an island here in Japan where Mr. Delacey spent the last months of his life. If one of his children finds the document within a year of his death, they will be rewarded with a portion of the money—approximately one million pounds, with the remainder to be allocated as specified in the will. We were to assist his potential heirs in their search to the best of our ability. If no one finds the will by the year's end, the entire fund goes to charity."

"That's a strange way to will your money," Alex said. "Why not just choose one person, or split the trust fund evenly?"

Mrs. Scialdone coughed slightly. "Apparently Mr. Delacey's relationship with his children were not entirely harmonious. Once they reached adulthood they all struck out on their own and scattered to the winds. One is now a businessman in Hong Kong, another a published author in the United States and the last is in Britain. I understand they didn't keep in contact much, if at all with Mr. Delacey after they left home."

Alex found it slightly sad: the old widower using his millions in a posthumous call for attention from the children who had left him. Saguru had another question in mind: "Why hire teenage detectives?"

"Mr. Delacey forbid the use of adult private investigators in his instructions, but Ms. Suarez—one of his children—pointed out that under his wording, someone like you wouldn't count." The corner of her mouth tilted up. "Once she had the idea, of course, the other two also wanted their own teenage sleuths to help them as well."

"And given that the will is supposedly hidden on a Japanese island, someone who knows the language and customs might have an advantage," Saguru said. "Was Mr. Delacey fluent in Japanese?"

"Not fully fluent, but he knew enough to communicate with the Hirokawas — they run the family hotel he was living in. Kashikijima was bought by one of their wealthier ancestors, and Masako Hirokawa and her daughter-in-law Yukiho have converted the mansion to a hotel for tourists who want a private semi-tropical retreat off the coast of Japan. They've agreed to keep Mr. Delacey's old room untouched, and to host the three heirs and any other parties during their search."

Alex thought that given the backing of Mrs. Scialdone's bank, the Hirokawas could probably expect a nice little income boost from this little endeavour, on top of whatever Delacey had paid to live out his last days on Kashikijima. "Three potential heirs, all trying to find the will first," he said. "Hakuba is representing one, and Heiji Hattori another. Who's representing who? And who's the third detective?" A thought struck him. "Don't tell me it's Conan Edogawa."

Mrs. Scialdone gave him an odd look. "No, but it's strange you should mention that name. Mr. Heiji Hattori agreed to participate on the condition that that boy would be allowed to come to Kashikijima with him. Apparently he's a good luck charm?"

Saguru just barely stopped himself from snorting. "Oh, I'll say." He would have to talk with Hattori once they met on Kashikijima—he'd agreed to a rematch with Hattori, not Hattori and Conan working together.

"As for who's representing whom, you and the heirs can decide that among yourselves after everyone has met on Kashikijima this weekend," Mrs. Scialdone continued. "You, Mr. Heiji Hattori, and Ms. Masumi Sera."

* * *

Ai was staring at him with a look of much-tried irritation. Conan kicked his legs back and forth on his chair and tried to appear innocent. "What? I'm just saying you should take a break now and then, Haibara. Ayumi and the others are starting to wonder if you don't want to play with them anymore."

"I'm doing all of this for you, you know, Kudo-kun," she said sweetly, waving a hand across the expanse of her lab table, currently covered with notes, beakers and other biochemical paraphernalia.

"Yes I know, but don't kill yourself doing it. You look like a panda, Haibara—when was the last time you went outside?"

Ai rubbed the circles under her eyes and sighed. "I just feel so close. Simon Perréal's research on enzymes affecting telomerase dovetails almost perfectly into my work on the prototype cure…"

"So you're saying you'll have another test cure for me soon?" He grinned in response to her glare: "If not, a break now won't make much of a difference. Let's go out into the yard, at least. I have some news for you about Alex Rider."

That caught her interest. Ai followed him outside into the walled front yard of Pf. Agasa's house and sat down on a bench there, and watched him kick a soccer ball around while he told her what he and Heiji had discovered about Alex.

"A teenage intelligence agent," she murmured. Conan wondered if she felt some kinship, as someone else who had been forced to work in the world of crime and danger far too young. "And he's looking for you, Kudo-kun."

"I'll be careful, Haibara."

"And the sniper Alex caught at the heist, could he be working for Them?"

"He's still in a coma, so we can't ask him anything." Conan sighed in frustration. "Not who he's working for, or why they'd want to kill KID."

Ai suddenly straightened. "Someone's coming." Two someone's, actually—he could hear two pairs of footsteps as they approached over the gravel, and low voices conversing as one of them pressed the Professor's doorbell.

"Speak of the devil," said Ai. "I do believe that's Alex and Hakuba-kun."

* * *

Alex and Saguru had dropped by Professor Agasa's house after school to say hello to Ai. Neither of them had expected to find the other unusually precocious elementary schooler of their acquaintance there as well.

"Oh that's right, Conan's a classmate of yours, isn't he, Ai?" Alex recalled. The two children exchanged sharp glances, and he was once again struck by the wary maturity in both their manners. It was, frankly, more than a little unsettling.

"Yes, he is." Ai blinked, then gave them a small but genuine smile. "Edogawa-kun told me about the heist. I didn't expect you two would come and visit—let me go and tell Hakase you're here."

"Did the police find out anything more about the sniper?" Conan asked Saguru as she went in.

Saguru shook his head. "He's still unconscious."

"This is just a precaution," the boy said. "But did the police give him any guards?"

"In case whoever hired him decides to dispose of any links? Yes, Nakamori-keibu has placed guards around his ward."

"Ah, it's good to see you two again, Hakuba-san and Alex-san! Come in, come in, I have a delicious cake from the new bakery nearby. Ai-kun won't let me eat it all, so you'll have to help." Professor Agasa's rotund figure appeared in the door and waved them into the living room. He carried a familiar pair of children's sneakers in one hand. "Conan-kun, I have your shoes. They're clean now, and I've recharged the skateboard too."

Alex perked up, and not just because of the mouth-watering strawberry shortcake the Professor placed in front of them. "Wait, so Conan got that skateboard from you, Professor? Did you make him that watch which shoots darts as well?"

"Ah, yes, the stun-gun wristwatch!" Professor Agasa said, not seeing how Conan's eyes widened.

"Edogawa-kun runs into trouble a lot, so Hakase made him some toys to help," said Ai, who did see. "He's also made gadgets for our group of friends at school—toy badges that can communicate with each other like walkie-talkies, flashlights in our watches and such. Things for our little adventures." She turned to the professor, who was surreptitiously trying to sneak a second slice of cake onto his plate. "Just one slice! Any more and it's too much sugar. At your age…"

"Ah, I see." From what Alex had seen Conan use at the heist he'd thought that Professor Agasa would be like Smithers, but from what Ai said his gadgets were more useful toys for children than tools for spy-craft. Not that he was a spy anymore, but Smithers' gadgets were one of the few things he missed about his old life. Still…"I don't suppose you have another one of those stun-gun wristwatches lying around?"

* * *

"So we were wrong," Saguru said quietly after they left Professor Agasa's house and the two children. Both he and Alex were stuffed full of strawberry shortcake, and though sadly the Professor didn't have a spare dart-watch for Alex he did get one of those spare toy badges Ai had mentioned as a memento.

"Yes, we were. I'm glad. The Professor seems to be a good surrogate father, and Ai practically mothers him. Even so, I'm glad we checked in on her." He would have been uneasy if they hadn't; Alex hadn't forgotten that look of terror on Ai's face in Lymstock.

He walked on, his thoughts on the two young children who seemed far too old for their age. Ai Haibara and Conan Edogawa: grade schoolers who are friends and in the same class. One with highly advanced chemistry knowledge she was desperate to hide, and the other who could not only keep up with, but surpass the police when chasing KID. Both shared that honed intelligence and calmness under pressure he would have expected from a highly trained adult, or maybe an extremely mature teenager. Hakuba had reasoned that they couldn't be agents like him, and Alex agreed, but his instincts still warned him that both Ai and Conan had secrets that were very, very dangerous.

Saguru suddenly stopped in his tracks, throwing Alex out of his reveries. "What is it?"

Saguru pointed to the nameplate of the mansion they were in front of. "It's the Kudo residence."

Alex looked there, and then back where they had come from. "Huh. Professor Agasa and Shinichi Kudo are next door neighbours?" He scanned the house and its surroundings more carefully. "The mailbox is empty, and the grounds have been maintained. Probably by that boarder Kudo's mom was talking about."

"I wonder if the good Professor knows anything about Kudo's disappearance," Saguru mused. Then he caught the way his companion was eyeing the fence. "Alex, you can't break in."

"I know," Alex sighed. He couldn't tell from here whether the Kudos' house-guest was home or not, and it would be ironic if he raised alarm by searching the house after his own words to Saguru about keeping a low profile. "It's a pity. I bet there are clues in there."

"Who was the one saying we should pretend we dropped the Kudo case again?"

"Augh, it's right here." The house with its many gabled roofs and concealing foliage both tempted and taunted him. Then he saw the curtains flutter in one of the front-facing windows. "There's someone inside!"

A brown-haired, bespectacled man in a turtleneck opened the door a moment later. "Are you two looking for something?" he called out in Japanese. He wore an oven mitt on his left hand.

"We heard this is the Kudo residence?" Saguru asked. "Is the family not living here anymore?"

The man approached. His eyes were thin slits behind his glasses, but his smile was quite amiable. "I'm afraid not. Kudo Yusaku-shi and Yukiko-san are in the United States right now. They've kindly agreed to rent their house to me while I complete my graduate studies at Tohto. I'm Subaru Okiya—and you are?" He peered at the two of them, his gaze lingering on Alex.

"Hakuba Saguru." Saguru debated how much he should say. What where the chances that the Kudo's guest would know about their missing son, and what were the chances that Subaru Okiya would warn Conan or Hattori about their search? Pretty low for both, honestly. "My friend and I wanted to speak to Kudo Shinichi. Do you know how we can contact him?"

The man shook his head. "I've never met Kudo Shinichi in person, sorry. I've only talked to his parents." He raised his left hand. "Oh, I just made a big batch of cream stew. Would you two like to try some?"

Saguru politely declined, and he and Alex soon made their goodbyes to the Kudo's boarder. At Okiya's request, Saguru left him their contact information in case the man ever did see or hear about Kudo Shinichi. As they walked away, Saguru translated the bits of conversation Alex hadn't understood. "Another dead end," he sighed.

Alex was briefly silent. Then: "Did you feel that something was off about him? Subaru Okiya, I mean."

"Other than how he was wearing a turtleneck, while cooking, in full summer? I wonder if he has a scar on his neck that he wants to hide. Why, did you notice something?"

"…I could have been imagining it," Alex said slowly. "But while he was talking to you, I had the oddest feeling that he was watching me."

* * *

 **A/N:** Sorry for the delay, everyone! I...really need to plan out the details before deciding on an extremely ambitious mystery next time. I have the next few chapters and a good portion of the ending written-it's the bits in between that are giving me trouble. I wanted the main case to start in this chapter, but I also wanted more bonding/character interaction, and then the chapter got so long I had to split it into two and push the case to the next one.

I don't think Hakuba's father's first name was ever given, so I've picked Noriaki, with the kanji for law/constitution and bright/light for this series.

As always, thanks for reading and for all the lovely reviews! **  
**


	7. Chapter 7: Kashikijima

**Chapter 7** : **Kashikijima**

Saguru and Alex flew from Tokyo to the airport in Amami Ōshima, Kagoshima Prefecture that Sunday afternoon. From there they drove down to the port, where it had been arranged that one of the Hirokawas would take them to Kashikijima by boat.

Four people were waiting for them at the docks when the two arrived; Hattori, Conan and two strangers. One was a dark-skinned, stockily built girl in her early twenties, and the other an androgynous-looking youth their age with short hair and sharp green eyes.

"Mr. Hakuba?" The dark-skinned girl greeted them in perfect, Queen's English. She had large black eyes set in a warm, open countenance. "I'm Raina. My uncle Kazuya's going to be taking us by boat to Kashikijima." She pointed to a tall, reedy looking middle-aged Japanese man who had just appeared at the prow of a small motor yacht. Kazuya Hirokawa waved back. "I'll be helping my family out during your stay, since there are so many guests."

"Alex Rider, I'm accompanying Hakuba on this case," Alex introduced himself. Raina's handshake was very strong, and her hands were calloused, he noted.

"Masumi Sera," the other teen also greeted them in English as they boarded the yacht. "Hattori-kun came with Conan-kun too; now I'm wishing I also brought someone else along." She sighed. "I wish Ran-chan could have come."

"You do too, don't'cha?" Hattori elbowed Conan with a snicker. The boy glared in response. "But it was already hard enough persuadin' Mrs. Scialdone ta let Conan come along; addin' another person would'a been pushing it."

"Speaking of Edogawa-kun," Saguru said sweetly. "I do hope that you will not be asking him for assistance during our rematch, Hattori-kun. That would be unfair."

Conan responded before Heiji could. "Of course not, Hakuba-niichan! I told Heiji-niichan if I think of something I'll keep it to myself and beat both of you!"

"Like I need his help to beat ya," Heiji scoffed.

"Uhm guys, I'll be competing too, you know," Sera said.

Alex cast a wistful glance towards the receding mainland. They had barely cast off from shore and already the competitive egos of the teen detectives were in full swing.

A glint appeared in Sera's eyes. "And by 'beating us', don't you mean calling Kudo Shinichi-kun to solve this over the phone, like you've done before?"

Conan froze. "Ahaha, you've got me!" He laughed, rubbing the back of his head bashfully.

Alex caught Saguru's eyes, reading the indecision in them. On one hand, this Sera girl clearly knew something about Shinichi Kudo, but they couldn't ask her right in front of Conan and Hattori. Not when they were pretending to have stopped investigating Kudo.

"Ah, so Sera-san has also met Conan-kun on a case before," Saguru said to her instead. "And I hear you've attended one of Kaitou KID's heists as well?"

Conan's shoulders stiffened infinitesimally at Sera's mention of Kudo, but after Hakuba neglected to pursue the topic and steered the conversation to KID instead he blinked and relaxed again.

It was just as well, Alex thought. He and Hakuba could question Masumi Sera later about what she knew of Shinichi Kudo. They should be able to find some opportunity to get her on her own and away from Conan and Hattori while everyone was investigating the inheritance case. In the meantime he turned over what she had already said. So Shinichi Kudo was away doing God-knows-what, but he would help his little apprentice solve cases over the phone? What if he called to help Conan while on _this_ trip? Even if he didn't, his contact information should be in Conan's phone. Oh, the possibilities.

* * *

Kashikijima was a small, crescent-shaped island, the majority of whose land mass was covered with tropical foliage. Its two tips were very close together; Alex estimated maybe fifty yards apart. A Japanese-styled house with a tower had been built on one tip, and an open-air pagoda stood on the other.

"This island was passed down to my grandmother, who was the last of a family which traced back to the Edo period," Raina told them as they approached. "It was all she got, but she somehow scrounged up enough money to repair the house and turned it into a hotel."

They passed between the two capes to land on a dock in the inner bay; the only good place for a boat to land, Hirokawa Kazuya told them, given the strong currents and rocks surrounding the island. A series of wide steps carved into the cliff-side led from the white sands of the beach to the house on top of the western cape three hundred yards above.

"Do you need any help with that?" Alex asked Raina as they unloaded. He and most of the others only brought a small suitcase each, but she was hoisting a large box of supplies into her arms.

"No, I'm fine, thanks," she said cheerfully. "I help out on the farms and at my uncle's practice all the time—this is nothing." And indeed when they all reached the top of the steps she was only a little out of breath.

Kashikijima House was two storeys tall, with a four storey pagoda tower at its upper right corner, almost tipping over into sea below. It was Japanese in style, with a wooden engawa veranda running around the edge of the ground floor and sliding shoji panels for walls. As they approached Alex could see a tsuboniwa—a courtyard garden —enclosed in the center of the residence, where a white-haired woman in a blue fan-patterned yukata was trimming the branches of a miniature maple tree.

"Obaasan, we're here," Raina called out as she set down her box, as the old woman approached and introduced herself. Masako Hirokawa was almost seventy, but she ran the operations of the family hotel with a spryness un-dulled by age.

"My daughter-in-law Yukiho's taken over cooking and the more intensive chores." Masako waved over a slender, dark-haired woman in an apron who bowed elegantly to them before heading back into the kitchen area. "Kazuya and Raina come from the mainland to help out as well whenever we have a large number of guests like now, but I try to do as much as I can. One has to stay active," she told the others while Raina translated for Alex after seeing his blank look.

"Grandma is getting on in age, though," the girl added in a low voice. "Uncle Kazuya has to get back to Kagoshima right away for work, so Yukiho's hired one of the local girls from Kagoshima as extra help, though she won't arrive until tomorrow. I don't think we've ever had so many guests here all at once—usually there's only one or two at a time at most, but we'll be fully booked tonight!"

The ground floor was only for dining and socializing—apart from the tsuboniwa garden Alex saw a small shrine in one corner with tablets and incense for the dead. Curios were displayed here and there, from statuettes of the four Japanese animal deities to a cabinet filled with board games to a glass display case of what looked like antique weapons.

Their rooms were all on the second floor, which had been renovated to be Western-styled with solid walls, doors that locked instead of shoji panels, and hardwood floors instead of tatami mats. Japanese influences still crept in—a hallway wrapped around the floor like the engawa on the ground level, and the bedrooms all had both a window looking out-wards and another facing the inner garden, offering two different scenic views and plenty of natural light.

Hattori and Conan shared a room right next to Saguru and Alex, while Masumi would be sleeping in one of the tower rooms. Their clients the Delacey heirs had all arrived and were resting in their own rooms, Masako told them. After the teens had unpacked, Raina took them on a tour of the house.

"There's the library next to Hattori-san and Edogawa-kun's room, and the heirs are in the rooms on the other side of this floor."

"What did you think of them, Hirokawa-neechan?" Conan asked her.

"You can just call me Raina," she told him. "My mother was a Hirokawa; my last name is Kapoor."

Conan put that together with her dark bronze skin and the curls in her thick black hair. "You're Indian, Raina-neechan?"

"Half, from my father's side. I'm actually British, but I decided to try and live with my mother's family after my parents passed." Raina seemed to be uncomfortable with the topic, and changed the subject. "This is the first time I've visited Kashikijima in weeks. I haven't met any of the heirs, or even Mr. Geskel—he's the other guest who's staying here."

"Did you meet Mr. Terence Delacey when he was still alive?" Sera asked.

"Oh, Mr. Delacey? Yes. I've chatted with him once or twice…it was a few months ago, I think."

"What was your impression of him?"

A furrow appeared between her brows as she tried to remember. "Slightly eccentric, but kind? And a bit lonely, I thought. He liked all kinds of puzzles; he would work on those picture puzzles on the chabudai downstairs while I took over cooking for Yukiho-obasan in the kitchen, which was how we first started talking. It turns out that one of my childhood friends was one of his grandchildren! Isn't it a small world?"

"Did he take walks around the rest of the island, or did he stick to the house?" Conan asked as Raina showed them the two rooms on the second floor of the tower. She would be sleeping in one, and Sera the other. If Delacey rarely left the house, it could narrow their search down.

"He went walking around the island a lot, at least while I was there," she answered. "There're a bunch of trails that would be easy even for someone his age."

They had moved up to the third floor of the tower. "Mr. Geskel is staying in that one—" she pointed to the room on the right—"and that one on the left had been Mr. Delacey's old room."

Saguru tried the doorknob, and found it locked. Probably on Mrs. Scialdone's orders, he thought, in order to prevent one of the heirs trying to get a head start on the search.

The fourth floor above looked to be an attic, used primarily for storage. There were stacks of canned food and chest freezers and fishing supplies leaning against the wall in one corner, while another was filled with random detritus—a rocking chair, boxes of children's toys, a broken electronic keyboard, and a pile of wood and cinder-blocks in one corner. The southern corner of the gabled roof was broken; the large central beam was intact, but there were gaps in the shingles through which they could see pieces of the sky. A ladder led up to the largest of the holes there, and around the exposed beam there was a contraption consisting of a bucket hanging on a rotating axle with a handle, like the devices used to draw water from a well.

"Sorry about the mess, we usually only come up to get food from the freezers—hey, watch out!" Raina called out in alarm as Conan nimbly scaled up the ladder and poked his head out of the hole in the roof.

"There sure are a lot of wooden beams and stuff up here," the boy said, looking around. "Are you guys fixing the roof, Raina-neechan?"

"Yeah, one section needed to have its under-beams replaced, so obaasan hired someone from Kagoshima to come and repair it." She looked more and more worried as Conan continued to remain with half his body stuck out of the roof. " _Please_ come down, Conan-kun."

He finally complied. "The view from the top's amazing. You would be able to see the whole island from up there, wouldn't you?"

"Yes, but it's too dangerous for you to go up like that," she chided. "The view from the windows here are just as good."

When the rest of them started heading downstairs, Heiji hung back until he and Conan were alone. "So did ya scope out the layout of the island? Or do ya think the will might be hidden up there?" Heiji whispered.

"Mostly the former. There's a pagoda on the other tip of this island; I want to go check that out later." He paused. "Hakuba looked like he might not be trying to find out what happened to me anymore, but I'm still worried Sera-san might let something slip."

"Hmm. Ya brought yer voice changer, right?" Conan nodded. "So if worst comes ta worst, we can play that trick again. I can pretend ta be ya on the phone while yer with'em. That should throw 'em off the track."

Conan considered it. "Sera-san might see through that setup, so I'd rather not risk it unless things get really desperate. Hopefully, everyone will be distracted by this competition for the will."

* * *

The tour over, Raina left to go help Yukiho make dinner, while the teens returned to the library on the second floor, where their clients were already gathered and waiting around the large wooden table.

Conan scanned the three of them; all in their mid-thirties, all of whom returned their scrutiny as if having second thoughts about hiring teenagers upon actually seeing them. It was easy enough to match their appearances with the briefs Mrs. Scialdone had provided. The bespectacled Asian man should be Ling Gengxin, the businessman from Hong Kong. The Latino woman wearing funky earrings and a casual t-shirt with some Spanish printed in curly font could only be Ines Suarez. Then by process of elimination, Edmund Kett was the Caucasian man with a leonine head of straw-coloured hair, a prominent nose and cool grey eyes.

Kett spoke first, his eyes on Conan. "I knew we hired some youths because there were no other alternatives, but surely an actual child is going too far?"

"Conan is with me," Heiji replied in English. "I'm Heiji Hattori. I've found his presence to have been very helpful on other cases before."

Kett scoffed. "That doesn't exactly reassure me about your abilities, then." He looked to Ling and Suarez. "He'd better be representing one of you two."

"We haven't decided that yet; why don't we get introduced first, Edmund?" Ling said mildly, while Conan discretely tugged at Heiji to keep him from responding. "I'm Ling Gengxin; this is Ines Suarez and Edmund Kett. I'm glad you all decided to make the journey here for us."

"I've never met a sleuth in real life before, never mind teenage ones!" Ines Suarez said, leaning forward with a look of interest on her face. "I'm a writer—would you mind if I asked you guys some questions later?"

"Of course not, Ms. Suarez," Hakuba told her. "I'm Saguru Hakuba. This is Alex Rider, who is assisting me on this case."

"Masumi Sera," Sera offered. "I'm by myself, unlike the others."

Ines Suarez had approached to shake their hands, and now she peered more closely at Sera. "Oh, you're a girl! Excellent, why don't you represent me, then, Masumi?"

"Fine by me."

"You women, always sticking together, eh?" Kett said. "Then I call those two English lads."

"Very well, Mr. Kett," Hakuba said politely. Alex narrowed his eyes but stayed silent.

"That leaves you with me then, Heiji. I hope that's alright," Ling said with a smile.

"Oh _definitely_. Pleased to be working with you, Mr. Ling." Heiji shook his hands. Conan returned the man's smile as well, also privately glad they wouldn't be working on behalf of Kett. "I'm gonna do my best to find that will for you, I promise," Heiji continued with a look at Hakuba.

* * *

"I have a question I've been wondering about," Sera said, addressing Ms. Suarez after their introductions were completed and who was working for whom properly notarized (Hakuba for Kett, Sera for Suarez and Hattori for Ling). "Why did you and Mr. Ling leave England and Mr. Delacey? Was he a bad father?"

"No," answered Ling Gengxin immediately. "Mr. Delacey gave us everything we needed—food, a roof over our heads, security and education and even siblings, of a sort. He was very kind."

"So why did you all leave, then?"

Ling began to look uncomfortable. He fidgeted, suddenly more like a schoolboy being punished than an adult in his late thirties. Finally, he gave in:

"I can't speak for Edmund, or Ines. As for me…Mr. Delacey was a very kind man, but…how can I explain this, there was always an unconscious expectation for what we were supposed to become. Not his fault; I suppose that when you take in a poor orphan from some village in rural China, you'd expect the kid to forget his past completely and embrace his new, upper class, British lifestyle. And I might have, if I had been younger when he adopted me. You know, I spoke no English at all when I first came over to England—you can imagine that made school a complete hell, at least until Ines joined my class—but I worked hard to fit in, to become Jerry instead of Gengxin, and I eventually did. Then one day I came across a Chinese tourist and couldn't answer any of her questions because I'd forgotten almost all my Mandarin, and realized that I actually didn't want to let go of _everything_ about my heritage."

"I think Ines felt a bit of the same as I did. Neither of us said anything to Mr. Delacey—it felt ungrateful, and unfilial. But that urge to go back to our roots kept building, the moreso because it was in silence. And then one day when I was nineteen I couldn't take it anymore and spontaneously took a trip to my old village in Fujian."

"It was nothing like I remembered. The little village was a city now, and there were concrete apartments where oxen used to wander in the rice fields. I was a _xi_ _āng jiāo rén_ ; as much of an alien there as I had been in England when I first emigrated. When Mr. Delacey called and asked why I would want to go back to a country where I had such bad memories, I'm afraid I didn't respond as calmly as I should have, and we ended up having something of a row."

"That's why you guys became estranged?"

"It sounds rather silly now, I know," Ling Gengxin admitted. "I refused to go back to England, wandered around for some time and eventually ended up in Hong Kong. Met and married my wife there, and we're expecting our first child in November, so ultimately I can't say I regret it."

"But you still came here."

Kett snorted. "He wasn't going to pass up the chance at that much money any more than me and Ines would, right Jerry?"

"What about you two?"

Ines shrugged. "My story's pretty much the same as Gengxin's, except replace China with Brazil and add in some drama about a boyfriend I was seeing at the time, who turned out to be a complete douchebag. God, I was an idiot then." She looked at Edmund Kett. "But what happened with you and Elena? You two were the golden siblings."

"Similar disagreements involving our lifestyle choices," Kett answered coolly. "I would really rather not talk about it." He looked around impatiently. "Now that that's all decided, can we get on with it? That old woman is supposed to give us the clues once we're all here."

Saguru called downstairs using the landline, and a few minutes later Masako Hirokawa entered the library. She carried a sealed envelope in one wrinkled hand, and her black eyes were obsidian-bright.

"Delacey-san left this in his room before he passed, and I was instructed by Scialdone-san to show it to those three at the same time, in order to be as fair as possible," she said, her aged voice still clear and firm. She took a single sheet of paper out of the envelope, laid it on the library table, and left the room with a bow. Everyone else leaned in closer to look.

There were three rows of shapes on the sheet, all made of square blocks coloured either black or white, seemingly at random. Drawn and shaded in with a black fountain pen and ruler, Saguru noted. Terence Delacey had a neat hand—every right angle perfect, with no blotches of spilled or smudged ink.

The first shape at the very top of the page was a square, formed of eight by eight smaller squares. The second shape in the middle was a broad rectangle with a thinner rectangle protruding from one end, like a cricket bat laid on its side. At the bottom were the numbers five and six (or maybe fifty-six?), again formed out of black and white squares:

* * *

 _Legend:_ x _– black squares,_ o _– white squares, - - empty space  
_

xxooxoox

oxxoxoxo

ooxooxxx

xoxxoxoo

oooxxoxx

xxoxoxoo

oxoxoxxo

xoxoxoox

* * *

oxxoxoooxoooxoooo

xooxooooxxxooooxxoxxooxxxox

xxooooxoooxxooooooxxoxoxoxo

oxooxxxooxxoxxooo

* * *

xoxx - oxooo

o - - - o

xxxo - oxoox

\- - x - o - - o

oxoo - oooox

* * *

"Well, I'm completely stumped," Ines Suarez declared.

* * *

Delacey's old room on the tower's third floor had a beautiful view of the sea and of Sakurajima's sloping bulk in the distance. It was cozy with rugs and books and a collection of English teas, but it contained no hints about its former resident's riddle. After everyone made their own search of the room and was disappointed, they each made a copy of the puzzle, and then scattered to follow their own leads. Ling and Suarez headed up to the attic ("There's got to be something in that pile of junk up there"), Sera, Conan and Heiji descended to explore the rest of the island, while Edmund Kett went in search of Masako Hirokawa, apparently convinced that the old woman knew more than she let on.

Alex found Saguru in their room. "Any ideas?" The way the black and white blocks were laid out so precisely made him think of a crossword, only there weren't any hints given on what to fill in.

"The way those smaller squares are coloured black or white has to mean something. I'm assuming they form a code of some kind." Saguru scribbled calculations on a sheet of paper as Alex watched. "If we let the black squares be one and white be zero, we can translate this into binary. Then if we let zero be 'A', one be 'B' and so on…"

Converting the binary numbers to letters that way gave complete gibberish. So did trying to use ASCII. While Saguru tried out other codecs, Alex got bored and headed downstairs.

Yukiho Hirokawa was making some sort of soup in the kitchen area, while Raina was crouched in the genkan entrance, pulling on sneakers. She had a football tucked under one arm. "Do you want to play?" she asked. "Yukiho says she doesn't need any more help with the food prep, and there's a grassy area nearby."

Alex readily agreed, and followed her to a field on the southern side of the house. The grass was relatively smooth, and a compact row of sago palms and spiky aloe plants formed a natural defence against either ball or player falling off the nearby cliff edge. They had just marked the two goals with bamboo poles and started to play when a voice called out: "Can I join?"

It was Conan. "I really like soccer," he added. Alex, who was beginning to be able to distinguish between when the boy was genuinely excited and when he was faking to butter up adults, thought that he recognized the former.

"Of course! Want to be on my team, Conan?" Raina said.

"Sure, Raina-neechan!"

"Hey, that's a bit unfair," Alex said, but he was grinning. He punted the ball, and they were off.

Alex was on his school's soccer team, and he scored the first two goals without too much trouble. Raina wasn't as skilled, but she'd clearly played before, and she was both athletic and enthusiastic. But the real surprise was Conan. Though the boy couldn't kick as far as him or Raina, he was extraordinarily agile. He engaged Alex in a fierce period of tackling—with nary a hip check or wandering elbow, which showed surprising self-control—nimbly stepped around Alex's screening, won the ball and passed it over to Raina, who scored.

Raina whooped in glee, and Conan high-fived her. "Nice one!" Sera's voice called. She and Hattori approached, apparently finished with their examination of the island. The two of them quickly joined in; Hattori to Alex's team and Sera to Conan and Raina's, and the afternoon flew by as the game grew more and more intense.

By the time they finished the sun hung much lower in the sky, and Conan had scored a final goal with an impressive bicycle kick, winning the match for his team. Alex, sweat-soaked and content, walked over to Saguru, who had been watching from the sidelines for the past few plays. "Did you get anywhere?"

Saguru startled; his gaze had been on the others, who were clustered around Conan. "Not with the cipher, no."

He passed over a bottle of water, and Alex guzzled it down. "I wish you weren't representing Kett," Alex admitted quietly after he had finished.

"I know," Saguru sighed. "Not every client is agreeable to work with. Luckily, I don't think it'll take long before someone solves that puzzle."

"Admitting defeat already?"

"Never. I will try a new approach after dinner. Come on, let's go in—you all need a shower before we eat."

Alex had a better idea, and went swimming instead. The others quickly followed suit except for Raina, and soon they were all splashing in the cool azure waters of the bay. Heiji started a water fight with Conan, which drew everyone in briefly before fizzling out again. In the end, Alex simply laid on the fine white sands of the beach, soaking in the sun until Raina came out to fetch them for dinner.

* * *

Dinner was held on the ground floor, with everyone seated on zabuton cushions around a low chabudai table which stretched almost from one end of the room to the other. The shoji panels were all slid back, giving an unobstructed view of all sides: the verdant tropical forest, the tsuboniwa garden and the endless, rolling sea covered by a spectacular sunset.

"Mr. Geskel is still outside, but apparently he prefers to eat on his own so we can get started without him," Raina translated for her grandmother. Alex needed no further invitation.

The food was just as impressive as the view. There were eight small plates in front of him, each filled with an individually-sized example of Kagoshima cuisine, from golden brown fried tsukeage fish cakes dipped in ginger and soy, to a small bowl of rich tonkatsu stew, made with daikon radish and konnyaku and flavoured with miso, to Alex's favourite: crispy-bottomed dumplings filled with tender morsels of the region's famous kurobuta pork.

"Now this is first class service," he said happily as he ate.

"Indeed," Saguru murmured from beside him. "I wonder how much it costs to run all this; it can't be cheap." Then he was distracted by his kibinago and didn't speak again for several minutes.

Conversation was relaxed and intermittent, as they all got to know each other or became reacquainted over their meal. Alex was relieved to find that his lack of Japanese fluency wouldn't hinder him here as much as he had feared. Between Ling Gengxin who spoke Mandarin, Cantonese and English, Ines Suarez (Spanish, English and some Portuguese) and Edmund Kett (just English, as far as he knew), English became the _lingua franca_ by default.

The three former siblings spent most of the time catching up with each other. From their talk, Alex gathered that Edmund Kett was unmarried and worked as a manager at a shipping company, Ling was an underwriter at an international reinsurance agency in Hong Kong, and Ines Suarez was an author whose best-selling work was a series of bodice-ripping romances ("Though I'm planning to expand into other genres!"). They had finished with dinner and moved onto dessert when the final guest on the island returned to the house.

"Oh, that must be Mr. Geskel," Sera pointed outside to where a tanned Caucasian man with almost shoulder-length blond hair was approaching from the steps outside. "I wonder what took him so long."

"Enjoying the beach, probably. You and Hattori didn't run into him earlier?"

She shook her head. "We went all around the island but didn't see him at all. Maybe we missed each other."

Alex heard the light steps as Mr. Geskel entered the dining area, but he was occupied with his dessert—a white, spongy, steamed confection filled with red bean paste called karukan—until he felt Hakuba tense up beside him.

He glanced sideways at Saguru, who was visibly holding himself from jumping up, and then at the stranger. The man's blue eyes glinted as he saw the half-British detective, and his mouth twisted into an unpleasant smile.

As the others made room for the new arrival, Alex nudged Saguru under the table. The other teen responded by tapping slowly on the back of Alex's hand. Morse code. Alex mentally translated the message, and felt the taste of the karukan turn to ash in his mouth.

Sera, Hattori and Conan had also noticed Hakuba's reaction and were giving him and Geskel looks. His expression now controlled, Saguru grabbed an orange from a bowl of fresh fruit in the center of the table and peeled and ate it, neatly gathering the seeds into a small pile on a plate in front of him.

Conan glanced from the seeds to Saguru and back again, and Alex saw the boy's eyes go wide. Hattori winced a moment later—he guessed that the Osakan had just received a poke from under the table.

"That was a wonderful meal, Hirokawa-san. Thank you." Saguru got up and excused himself. Alex followed. Geskel looked like he was about to come after them, but Masako Hirokawa appeared and started talking to him rapidly in Japanese, forcing him to stay in his seat.

"Hakuba-niichan! You said you were going to show me that new game after dinner!" Conan's childlike voice called out as they went up the stairs, and then came the patter of little feet running after them.

They all gathered in Saguru and Alex's room: first Conan, followed by Hattori and Sera a minute later. Saguru drew the curtains to the hallway window, and closed the door before standing by the one which looked out onto the courtyard.

"Okay, what was that all about?" Hattori asked irritably.

"Those seeds were a warning, weren't they?" Sera said, looking at Saguru. "Five orange pips, for mortal danger."

Hattori groaned. "Of course you Holmes geeks had to pass a message that way."

Sera shrugged. "I'm not a Sherlockian, but my brother is, and I've read the stories. And of course Conan-kun has been a longtime fan."

Conan gave her a strange look. "Shinichi-niichan showed them to me! But back to that man downstairs. He's the one you were warning us about, right Hakuba? Mr. Geoffrey Geskel."

"His real name isn't Geoffrey Geskel." Saguru started pacing back and forth. "That man usually goes by the alias Gunter Von Goldberg II, but I and several others call him Spider. He's an assassin."

* * *

 **A/N:**

h9i6t3: Right now I'm thinking Bourbon will play a role in part III, and he might have a cameo later on in this installment, but I haven't quite decided yet.

I had a nicely formatted version of the puzzle, but then ffnet ate it, so I had to replace the squares with letters instead. That was a _total_ pain. If you want to see a better representation of what it's supposed to look like, the chapter on AO3 has the proper version.

Continuing my tradition of adapting places from other mystery novels, Kashikijima is taken from _The Moai Island Puzzle_ by Alice Arisugawa.

As always, thanks for reading and for all the lovely comments!


	8. Chapter 8: Along Came a Spider

**Chapter 8** : **Along Came a Spider**

Heiji swore. "You're sure?"

"Positive," Saguru said grimly. "He has a light disguise on right now, but Spider has tried to kill me several times before; I know what he looks like."

Just what they needed. Conan closed his eyes and thought. "You didn't raise the alarm downstairs in case the others got caught in the crossfire."

"Precisely. Gunter Von Goldberg II is a well-known illusionist and stage performer, and Spider likes to use those tricks in his attacks as well. He knows how to manipulate crowds; I didn't want any innocent civilians to get hurt."

"Better and better," Alex muttered under his breath.

"That is assuming that they _are_ all innocent civilians?" Masumi said. "I mean, Ling, Kett and Suarez here all stand to gain millions of pounds."

"People have certainly murdered for far less," Heiji agreed. "No offence, Hakuba, but I don't think Spider came all the way here to kill you."

"None taken," Saguru said. "He would have had an easier job in Tokyo if I were the target. Given that apparently he arrived a few days ago, he would have finished the job and left already if it were one of the Hirokawas. Whereas the three heirs were scattered across the globe. This is probably the first time the three of them were in one place in years. Yes, there's a distinct possibility one of them hired Spider to eliminate the competition. We have to stop him."

"Or he could be here for another reason. Maybe assassins need a holiday every now and then?" Alex said, a far-away look in his eyes. "But still, Hakuba, even if Spider is here for one of the Delacey heirs, he may try to target you as well, right?"

Saguru nodded reluctantly.

"Okay, you're not sleeping here tonight then. This room is a security nightmare."

"All the bedrooms on this floor are the same," Conan pointed out. "One window opening to the tsuboniwa and another to the hallway. The library is the only room with just one window."

"Before that, why don't we alert the authorities?" Sera asked.

"There's only my word to go on that Geskel is Spider, but warning the police is a good idea," Saguru agreed, pulling out his phone.

At that moment, they were all startled by a knock at the door. "Are you guys busy?" Raina's voice called. Alex re-opened the door after first peering out through a crack in the curtains. "What is it, Raina?"

She looked hesitant, then apologetic. "I was going to show you guys the rest of the island after dinner, but the weather report just announced that there's going to be a storm this evening. I can already see the clouds gathering—these tropical storms hit fast, and hard. You'll have to close and bolt all your windows."

"Do you want help with the storm preparations?"

"No, it's fine. Yukiho's gathering flashlights in case there's a blackout, and I'm heading up the tower to cover up the hole in the roof before it starts raining." She paused. "Is everything alright? You guys didn't stay until the end of dessert. Were you staring at Mr. Geskel for some reason, Hakuba-kun?"

"Oh, uhm, he reminded me of someone I knew," Saguru said. "But I was mistaken. Just who is he again?"

He wasn't sure if Raina bought his lie; she blinked and said: "He's a landscape architect that came here for a vacation the day before yesterday."

"Landscape architect?" Alex said flatly.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure. My grandmother's been talking to him about his job—she's a pretty big green thumb. I've overheard obaasan asking him for advice on where to get the right kind of gravel for the tsuboniwa garden."

"Oh, Raina-chan, I'm having trouble with my cell phone reception," Masumi said casually. "Does that usually happen here?"

"Sometimes?" Raina frowned. "The reception can get pretty spotty, and my phone always stops working here when the weather gets bad, but I wouldn't have expected it to be down already."

Saguru swore in his head. If Spider had somehow blocked the reception, they were in trouble. "What about the landline phones?"

"I think they're still working? Obaasan was making a call just before I came up."

"Raina-neechan!" Conan piped up with his patented cute-little-boy smile. "Who's the policeman in charge of Kashikijima?"

"I'm not sure, actually—you'd have to ask obaasan. Why, Conan-kun?"

"Just curious!" The boy leaped up from the bed he had been sitting on and made a beeline for the door. "I wanna call Ran-neechan!"

Saguru started after him, but Heiji beat him to it. "I need'ta make a call as well. Where'd ya say the phone was, Raina-san?"

The three of them headed downstairs together, while Saguru, Alex and Masumi waited in grim silence. Saguru saw why Conan and Heiji had gone downstairs to make the call instead of him, but that didn't mean he liked it. When the pair returned, they looked much less cheerful.

"Masako-obaasan said the local inspector is someone called Tazuka," Conan reported, all traces of his earlier exuberance gone. "But the phone's not working anymore, so we couldn't call him."

Alex swore under his breath. "So for tonight, we're all trapped on an island with a known killer." So much for their tropical island getaway; this was more like the beginnings of a slasher film.

"You can hole up in my room if you want, Hakuba-san," Sera offered. "It has one window, but that faces the sea. It's safer than the alternatives."

"Thank you, Sera-san, but my original point stands." Saguru looked around at them all. "If I just stay in my room Spider will go ahead and carry out his assignment. And now that he knows there are detectives here, he's going to want to do it as soon as possible. He kills without a thought—I understand if you guys don't want to get involved, but I'm going to do my best to stop him."

Heiji snorted. "Come on. What kinda people do you take us for? Besides, after seeing us follow you this Spider guy is gonna think we also know about him now. We were involved from the moment we stood up to leave the chabudai table."

"Not to mention, you can't watch all three heirs by yourself, Hakuba-niichan!"

"No, Edogawa-kun, you are not going to help," Saguru said firmly. "I know you're a very smart boy, but Spider is a professional assassin. Alex, Hattori and I can each cover one of the Delacey heirs."

Masumi raised an eyebrow. "What, and I can't participate because I'm a girl?"

"Of course you can help us as well if you want, Sera-san. But I can't allow Edogawa-kun to get involved in something this dangerous." Conan opened his mouth to object. "He's not Kaitou KID, Conan-kun. Spider will have no qualms about killing a child."

Conan closed his mouth, frustrated. Curiously, Heiji looked like he was going to argue as well, and Sera had an indecipherable look on her face. "Where do you suggest he stay during the night instead, then?" she asked. "None of the rooms are completely secure."

"Sera-san's right," Conan said. There was no trace of the carefree child in his voice or manner anymore. "The doors and windows can be bolted from the inside, but neither of those would stop a professional." He looked up at Saguru, gaze intent and controlled. "I've been in situations like this before, Hakuba. You've seen me in action at the Sunset Mansion, and at the Detective Koshien."

"Those were civilians driven to murder through circumstance, not an experienced hit man."

"Plus it'd be better if I stayed with you guys instead of hiding on my own. But I see you're still not convinced. We can't keep arguing about this forever, so why don't we put it to a vote between the five of us?" He raised his hand. "I've gone up against killers like Spider before; I can do so here as well."

"I vote yes," Heiji said immediately. "Ku-Conan-kun can handle himself, and we'll need as many people as possible to cover everyone else."

"Unlike Hattori-kun, I'm not comfortable with the idea of endangering a child when there are other options available," Saguru said frostily. "Alex?"

"No way," Alex agreed, crossing his arms. "You're _eight_ , Conan."

They all looked to Masumi, who as the last person to cast her vote would be the tiebreaker.

"Conan-kun should help," she said.

"Sera-san—"

"Conan-kun can handle himself as well as the rest of us, and as Hattori-kun said, we need all the help we can get," Masumi said coolly. "I know you and Alex don't like it, but the only way you two will be able to stop Conan-kun from helping is if you tie him up and keep a watch on him all night."

"How are you okay with letting a kid get involved in something this dangerous? He could get killed!" Alex was struggling to keep his voice down.

"We could all get killed," Conan returned. "The vote has been completed, Alex. If you guys keep on fighting about this, being divided would only make us less effective as a group tonight."

Alex threw up his hands in disgust. "And don't think I haven't noticed you turning the 'cute little kid' act on and off as necessary." The way Conan switched between the hyper-active, sugary child and the mature thinking machine was even more unnerving than Ai's constant somberness.

Conan gave a wry half-smile in acknowledgement. "I'll stick with one of you guys at all times, if that would make you feel better. Or I suppose I could help cover whoever the least likely target is?"

"You mean the person who hired Spider in the first place?" Saguru pointed out. "That's not going to be much safer."

Heiji huffed. "I'd rather play offense than defense. Why don't we just shoot this Spider with one of Conan-kun's sleeping darts and hand him over to Inspector Tazuka in the morning?"

"Somehow I doubt it's going to be that easy," Alex said.

"What's Spider's usual MO? Anything we should watch out for?" Masumi asked Saguru.

"His preferred weapons are needles, which he can throw with deadly accuracy. He's proficient in both disguise and mimicry, and Spider can also use this kind of…almost hypnosis along with his illusions," he responded. "I would love to be able to just dart him as Hattori-kun suggested, but it's not going to be that simple. Spider probably will have heard by now that we're here as detectives; he'll be on his guard."

"Not against a child," Conan said.

Saguru shook his head. "Maybe not against a normal child, but against Edogawa Conan, known rival of Kaitou KID? I'm not risking it."

"What are we going to do then?"

"Well, we need to keep an eye on the three Delacey heirs, and we also need to keep an eye on Spider," Conan said.

"Split into two groups, then?" Alex suggested. "Hopefully the heirs will turn in for an early night, especially with this storm. One group can stay and patrol this floor, while the other tries to follow Spider. We can switch up as needed if something happens, of course."

"Can you fight?" Saguru asked Masumi. She nodded: "I know Jeet Kune Do."

"Very well. Alex, Conan-kun and I will keep watch over the Delacey heirs here; Hattori-kun and Sera-san will have the task of tracking Spider," Saguru decided.

"Works for me," Heiji agreed after thinking it over, while the others shrugged.

"Hattori; take this." Conan passed him his Detective Boy's badge, and looked to Alex. "Did you bring the one Agasa-hakase gave you?"

With a start, Alex remembered the little yellow and blue toy badge he received while visiting Ai. "Yeah, it's in my bag. Ai mentioned they can be used as walkie-talkies, right?"

"Yes. With the phones not working, it's the only way our two groups can communicate with each other once we split up."

Alex retrieved the badge from his luggage and gave it to Conan. After testing that the two badges were functional, the boy looked up:

"Let's head down. If they're still all talking down there, we can try to figure out who hired Spider, and who his target is."

* * *

The hallway windows already showed a darkening sky in cloudy turmoil when they left the library, heralding the gathering storm, and the first tentative drops of rain had grown in confidence to a steady drizzle by the time they reached the ground floor. The Hirokawas and the three Delacey heirs were all still there, but there was no sign of Spider.

"Did Mr. Geskel head up to his room already?" Masumi asked as they all looked around.

"Mr. Geskel? Yeah, I think he went up about ten minutes ago?" Ines Suarez said.

The detectives shot each other worried looks, but stayed in place. Alex was tempted to head up to search for Spider, but with everyone else present it made more sense to stay here on the ground floor.

Having passed out torches and snacks to their guests, Raina and Yukiho were now rolling out the storm shutters. Called amado, these were stored in box-like tokuburo compartments on the outside of the walls. Alex watched in interest as the two women slid the wooden shutter panels along the tracks running on the outside of the engawa and then bolted each panel in place. Now completely sealed from the outside, Kashikijima House was dimmer and far less welcoming than the open vista it had presented during dinner.

Ling Gengxin yawned. "Well, I think I'll turn in for the night." Suarez and Kett murmured in agreement, and the three headed for the stairs. Saguru caught Alex's eyes, and they followed as well.

They had all just started heading up when a loud banging noise sounded from the entrance area.

"I think someone's knocking," Raina said, and before anyone could react she unbolted the shutter she had just completed securing.

"Raina!" Conan called out in warning. Heiji and Masumi both tensed. Alex and Saguru stood at the foot of the stairs, blocking the heirs from coming down again to see what was going on.

"It's fine, don't worry," Raina said, sounding oddly excited. "I think I know who it is!"

She slid the panel back. The first lightning bolt of the night picked that moment to strike, burning the afterimage of the figure standing there into everyone's eyes.

The bolt dissipated, and the stranger stepped into the entryway. As his eyes adjusted, Alex saw with relief that their visitor was a young woman in a rain-splattered navy shorts and jacket, who was now bending down to take off her shoes. Her face was obscured by her long hair, which gleamed a pale gold under the dim foyer lights.

After changing into the house slippers Raina passed to her, the stranger stood up, hair falling back from her face—and Alex couldn't help staring in shock.

One half of the girl's face was extraordinarily pretty, with finely drawn features and a large hazel eye. The other was all one massive burn scar, the colour and texture of jerky, with a thin slit where her left eye should have been. She unbuttoned her jacket, and Alex saw that the leathery scar ran down her neck and onto her shoulder, though its full extent was covered by her blouse.

The startled silence was broken by Edmund Kett, who shoved his way past Alex and Saguru and strode up to the girl. "What are you doing here?"

She gave a sardonic smile in response. "Good to see you too, Uncle."

Ines Suarez and Ling Gengxin came up to her more slowly. "You're Elena's daughter, aren't you?" Ines said, staring at her face in growing recognition. "Marie, was it? You look just like her."

"Not exactly like her," Marie said, tilting the disfigured side of her face up. "But thank you all the same. You must be Ines, and Gengxin?"

"You didn't answer my question," Kett interrupted. "What are you doing here?"

"Most likely for the same reason you are," Saguru said, stepping up as well. "After all, if she is the daughter of Elena Semple, there is a chance she is included in Mr. Delacey's will as well, correct?" The girl nodded.

"But _how_ are you here?" her uncle continued as if Saguru hadn't spoken.

"I told her," Raina spoke up, surprising everyone. Marie smiled at her, expression completely transformed from her earlier defensiveness.

"Marie-san was the childhood friend you were talking about, right Raina-neechan?" Conan piped up, connecting the dots. "The one who's Mr. Delacey's granddaughter by adoption."

Masako Hirokawa asked something in Japanese, and Raina answered in the same language. The two conversed back and forth for a while, Masako clearly lecturing and Raina chastened but pleading. The two seemed to reach some sort of agreement, and Raina told her friend: "You can sleep in my room, Marie. It's not very large, I'm afraid…"

"She can't stay here!" Edmund Kett protested.

"She can't head back out there in this weather," Ling pointed out. "The storm's picking up. There's no way you can take a boat back safely right now—I'm frankly amazed she managed to land—and this is the only house on the island. She'll have to stay here for tonight."

Kett continued to grumble, but the matter was settled. Raina excitedly showed Marie up to her tower room on the second floor, and the other heirs went up as well. Yukiho cleaned up the rainwater let in by Marie and resealed the amado shutters before she and Masako also retired for the night in their rooms on the tower's first floor.

Alex and the detectives remained on the ground floor, standing near the stairs so they could keep an eye out for any movement above. The storm was truly starting now, and Alex could hear the splatters as growing gales threw the pouring rain against the amado. It would have been soothing, this sensation of being in the center of calm amidst the tempest outside, but for the knowledge that what was enclosed within these walls was far more dangerous than nature's furor outside.

"Well, this changes things," he said, his voice low so that Masako and Yukiho wouldn't be able to hear them from their rooms nearby. "What was Raina saying to her grandmother before?"

"Masako Hirokawa was asking her why a strange girl had shown up, and Raina told her that she was a childhood friend from England," Saguru said. "Masako was annoyed that Raina invited the girl without telling anyone—even telling Marie the directions here and where to rent a motorboat on the mainland—but Raina said that her grandmother had allowed Raina to invite friends over before."

"Yeah, I don't think this was what her grandmother had in mind," Masumi said. "Do you think Marie's eligible to be another heir? She'd be another person we'd have to keep an eye on, though at least she's sleeping with Raina."

"We'd have to ask Mrs. Scialdone tomorrow. But even if she wasn't, the others could definitely see her as another rival right now, given the entrance she just made," Heiji muttered.

That was true. Ling and Suarez had been polite, but they can't be happy about another person entering the contest, and Kett had been downright hostile at the sight of his niece.

"We can stick with our previous plan for now," Conan said. "Alex, Hakuba-niichan, if we stay in the southeast corner outside Suarez's room we should be able to keep the doorways of all three heirs as well as Raina and Marie's tower room in sight."

"Let's try and find Spider, then," Masumi said to Heiji, and the two of them headed up the stairs.

Saguru nodded to Alex, and the two of them plus Conan went up to the second floor. If anyone came out of their rooms they would probably ask what two teenagers and a child were doing outside their rooms, Alex thought, but he was past caring. Alex and Conan settled down to wait in the southeast corner, while Saguru moved to the library window to keep an eye on the windows surrounding the tsuboniwa courtyard. The soft creaks from Hattori and Sera's ascent faded away, and then all was quiet save for the sounds of the storm raging outside, and all dark within the house except for the light spilling out from the cracks under the doors of the four rooms they were watching.

It was going to be a dark and stormy night.

* * *

 **A/N:** ramblingguest: I really like the 'Mary is former MI6' theory, so I might end up doing something with it, though it won't happen in this installment.

A relatively short chapter this time, that's mostly setup. In this series I've made the unnamed org Spider and Snake works for the Black Org, contrary to what Gosho has said.

I finally got _Never Say Die_ from the library! Haven't started reading it yet, but I can't wait!


	9. Chapter 9: Down Came the Rain

**Chapter 9** : **Down Came the Rain**

One by one the lights in the rooms they were watching died out, plunging the corridor outside into complete darkness. Alex could feel the wind and rain lashing out against the house's walls and storm shutters, could hear the storm and the distant waves thrashing against the shore outside, but he couldn't see either Saguru or Conan, though he knew they were both close by.

He had almost slipped into a lull when a movement from Conan drew his attention. The boy had touched the left side of his glasses, and a glowing web appeared on the lens, casting faint light onto his face. "Okay, Heiji and Sera seem to be heading up the tower." Saguru walked over from his shift by the library window and he explained: "Aside from being a mini walkie-talkie, I can also track the badge I gave Hattori earlier."

"And now they're coming down again," Conan continued, and a brief flash of Saguru's torch illuminated Hattori and Sera as they appeared in the doorway to their floor.

"Spider's gone," Masumi whispered as they all clustered together around Saguru's electric torch. "We just made a loop of the house and there's no sign of him."

"Okay," Alex whispered back after a brief pause. "We might need a new plan. Do you think it's worthwhile trying to find where he's hiding, or should we stay here and continue guarding this floor?"

"Stay," Saguru said, at the same time Heiji said: "Go and find Spider—"

They both stopped talking. "It's better if we can find and subdue Spider instead of waiting for him to attack," Heiji said. "Stick with our old plan: you guys stay here while we keep on searching. I want to grab something from that display case downstairs, too."

"I think at least one group should move around," Conan agreed. "The Delacey heirs are the most likely to be in danger, but there is still a chance the target is one of the Hirokawas. One of us should stay by the window in the library to keep watch on the other courtyard windows from there."

It was far from ideal, but Alex couldn't think of a better idea. There was no plan that would cover all the possibilities—all they could do was make their best shot, and hope.

* * *

The power seemed to have gone out, so Masumi beamed the light from her torch onto the display case while Heiji prodded at its base. "Huh," Heiji said after a pause. "Well that's interestin'." He lifted off the glass covering, exposing the collection of antique weapons below.

There was quite a selection: various swords, including a katana and tekkan, a metal gussen fan, manriki-kusari chain, and even a pair of authentic-looking tanegashima pistols. The collection must be worth a small fortune. After some consideration Heiji chose a simple bokken. As he picked it up and tested the heft and grip of the wooden sword, Masumi examined the remaining weapons.

"Hattori-kun, look at this," she said. "The kunai and yawara in this section are spread out further apart than the others."

"An' ya think they'd lock a case a' valuable weapons like this, but I lifted the top right off."

"Yes, I think someone unlocked this, took something, and then spread out the other weapons to cover up the absence."

"Looks like I ain't the only one who wanted to borrow a weapon fer tonight," Heiji said grimly.

* * *

Saguru peered out through the library windows. He tried to keep watch for any signs of a figure scaling the roof and walls, but between the chthonic darkness and the hard rain pouring down the window glass it was difficult to determine what was real, and what was storm-stirred imaginings.

Time seemed to stretch and slip, and he almost thought that he had fallen asleep standing up when—

Raindrops against his face, and the smell of fresh night air.

The library window was open.

He had just enough sense left to throw himself to the side as a stripe of silver rain flew sideways towards him—and bounced off hard wood with a metallic tinkle. Hattori had appeared beside him, both hands gripping the bokken he had used to deflect the wave of lethal needles.

"Yer being attacked—don't just stand there!" Heiji yelled.

"I can see that, thank you very much!" Saguru snapped back, adrenaline pumping as he backed away into the room.

A figure had appeared as if by magic outside the open window—dressed in all black, its face covered by a strange mask with a triangle of glowing red lights which brightened and pulsed, and begun to swirl.

Hattori stopped and stared. "…Kazuha?"

"Don't look at them!" He shone his torch straight into Heiji's eyes to clear out the effects of Spider's hypnotic lights. Hattori yelped, and Saguru got a nasty thwack on the forearm from the temporarily blinded Osakan when he reached for Heiji's shoulder. He ignored the pain, and tugged Heiji towards the library door. If Spider had more of those needles, they were so screwed—

The assassin leapt towards them, and was stymied when two figures appeared to block him: Alex and Masumi. Alex's arm shot out, something went _splat_ , and the red lights on Spider's mask were suddenly covered by grainy splotches.

 _Mud. He threw soil from one of the plant pots_ , _probably_ _mixed with rainwater_ , Saguru realized, trying to see more of what was happening. His torch showed a strange, lethal dance: the assassin ducking and weaving between Alex's karate strikes and Masumi's Jeet Kune Do. Spider's vision was partially blocked by the mud covering his goggles, but he was armed, and Alex and Masumi were not used to fighting with each other. More than once one of them had to pull back or redirect an attack to avoid hitting their own ally, which their opponent quickly learned to take advantage of.

Still, the two were gradually learning to coordinate their moves. Then Heiji jumped into the fray with his bokken raised, and the tides began to turn.

Saguru considered joining in as well, but the torchlight he was providing the others to see by seemed more valuable than another person added to the fight. Just as he thought that, Spider dodged Masumi's low kick, twisted Heiji's bokken to deflect one of Alex's chop at his throat, and threw something at Saguru.

He ducked, but his torch was knocked out of his hands and broke on the ground. In the near total darkness, all he had was a dim impression of blurred shapes and the sounds of strikes and heavy breathing. Now Alex, Masumi and Heiji had a much harder time trying not to get in each other's way, and all the while the red lights on Spider's head grew brighter and brighter as the mud began to fall off.

"Get away from Spider right now!" Conan's voice called out, and three clumps of darkness surrounding the man suddenly jumped away. The assassin crouched low, crimson lights cleared, readying for an attack—

An arc of electric blue sparked from the doorway, and something slammed Spider in the chest hard enough to throw the man across the room and against the window ledge. Conan ran in, sneakers still sparking, the soccer ball he had kicked rolling to a stop by the side of the wall.

The assassin looked up and twisted to the side, narrowly avoiding a bokken chop from Hattori. Spider continued the movement, rolling out of the window and landing in a crouch upon the shingled roof.

The man took in the situation in a glance—Saguru in a judo stance, Hattori with his bokken ready, the soccer ball back in front of Conan and the boy's sneakers starting to spark again—and chose a tactical retreat.

"Ya!" Hattori shouted as the man turned and scurried over the rain-slick roof like the arachnid of his namesake. Saguru watched his progress: "He's heading for the tower." Heiji tried to raise his arm, and winced.

"Hattori, you're hurt!" said Conan, alarmed. The moon slipped out, and they could see something dark dripping down Heiji's left bicep.

"We'll follow Spider; join us later once you're all right!" Alex yelled as he and Masumi ran out after the man. Saguru passed Heiji's torch for Conan to hold, tore a strip off of his shirt, and quickly tied it into a makeshift bandage around the Osakan's arm.

Conan switched on his Detective Boys badge. "Try to keep Spider in sight, but engage with caution."

Alex's voice came out of the badge, slightly panting from the effort of running up the stairs. "Got it."

The immediate danger now over, Heiji lowered his bokken and rubbed his eyes gingerly. "Was that weird whammy thing with the red lights what ya were talking 'bout, Hakuba?"

"Yes, Spider can use those goggles to…spin illusions to trap his victims. I'm not precisely sure how it works, but I believe it involves hypnosis of some kind."

"Lovely," Conan groaned. He tapped his badge again, and added: "Oh, and you guys, Spider uses those red lights on his mask to paralyze people, so watch out if they start spinning again." He looked up. "If Alex and Sera-san can stay on his trail, we can ambush him all together."

"Yes…but is it a good idea to leave this floor unguarded?" Saguru asked. Then he noticed that the football Conan had used still hadn't deflated. Conan caught his look: "I borrowed a soccer ball from downstairs. There's still two more in my belt."

"As fer leaving this floor, I think that's a risk we'll have to take at this point," Hattori said. Then an idea struck him. "We could use the wax from those candles Yukiho-san gave us to seal the doors! That way at least we'll know if anyone's entered or left the rooms here."

They quickly made the seals, and regrouped with Sera and Alex on the ground floor. "Spider definitely came down here," Alex said in frustration as they stood by the weapons case, "but then he gave us the slip."

Masumi tapped the glass of the display case. "Do any of you remember the layout of this case? When Hattori-kun and I came down to borrow his bokken something was clearly missing."

Saguru shook his head, but Alex said: "I think…there was something like a miniature speargun here when I was looking at the case before, and it's not here now."

"Huh, why would Spider want one of those? Did he run outta those needles or something?" Heiji wondered.

"He wouldn't," Saguru said slowly. "Spider carries enough weapons to not need any antique replacements. Anyone else here who has murder on their minds, however…"

"So aside from the assassin, there might be someone else walking around armed and ready to kill. Fantastic," Alex summarized. "Well, I'm sure Spider came down here; let's search this floor."

* * *

They did, walking around the entire floor, checking the kitchen, around the shrine and sliding back shoji panels to make sure no one was in an alcove or on the engawa, all the while braced for a sudden attack, but found no signs of Spider or anyone else.

"Dammit, he must have snuck upstairs again," Hattori said once they had completed the circuit.

Alex thought of it then. "The courtyard garden!"

He slid back one of the panels walling the tsuboniwa—sturdier than the wood-and-paper shoji of the living area but not as heavy as the amado shutters—and stepped into the garden, looking for any sign of a person on the roof or climbing the walls. The torchlights behind him picked out the rain beyond the overhang, falling in a steady, hypnotic drizzle. He started to get drenched as soon as he stepped past the shelter provided by the roof, but Alex ignored the water and squinted up at the tower. Was it just his imagination, or was there a bulky shape up there—

" _Watch out!_ " He heard someone scream, and threw himself to one side. A series of heavy thuds crashed down beside him, as if it were suddenly hailing boulders. Alex frantically covered his head with his arms, and waited. When the landslide noises finally stopped, he peeked out.

A pile of concrete cinder-blocks lay near where he had stood moments before. Some of the blocks had shattered into rubble, and he shuddered to think of what would have happened if one had landed on him.

"Someone's up there, on the top of the tower!" Conan pointed.

" _Spider_ ," Alex hissed, and they all bolted for the stairs.

* * *

They ran up the tower as fast as they could, but both attic and rooftop were empty by the time they reached the top. Still, there were clear traces that someone had been there before them. The holes in the southern corner of the roof were uncovered, letting in the rain, and once Heiji climbed the ladder to the rooftop he found rope, long wooden beams and other materials scattered there, like the aftermath of a construction site.

"The beams must have been used to help push that pile of cinder-blocks off," Heiji reported, once he climbed down again. "Like a ramp or a sled. Otherwise it'd be impossible for one person to throw that many blocks all at once."

"It's really kind of overkill," Alex said. One cinder-block thrown from that height would have been more than enough to crush him to death. "Still, I thought he mainly wanted to kill Hakuba?"

Conan frowned, thinking, and then his small face cleared. "He may have been, but Alex, you and Hakuba-niichan both have fair hair, and similar builds. You two would look very similar to each other from this distance and dimness."

Masumi snorted. "Conan-kun, at this point I'm pretty sure he wants to kill _all_ of us. Alex just happened to step out at the wrong time."

Conan noticed the axle on the long central beam which formed the southern edge of the roof. "I think he pulled up the cinder-blocks a few at a time using that bucket there," he said. The metal bucket which he had remembered was hanging there in the afternoon was now on the attic floor, the long rope coiled inside. Conan frowned. That was odd.

Feeling rather like they were chasing a malevolent ghost, Conan led the way down one floor, to Spider's room. It was still unlocked, and empty, as was Delacey's old room next door. They quickly searched the room, but there was nothing that would have been out of place as part of the assassin's cover identity.

A brief check of the second floor proved similarly unsatisfactory, but as they moved to the first floor he caught a movement in the darkness of the living room, and swung his flashlight around. "Who's there?!"

The narrow beam picked out Ines Suarez, standing near the dragon statuette with a deer-in-the-headlights look. Then she saw that the ones who had interrupted her were a child and four teenagers, and relaxed again. "Oh. Hello!" she said awkwardly.

"Doing some after-hours investigating, Ms. Suarez?" Masumi asked with an edge in her voice.

"Looks like I'm not the only one," the woman shrugged, unrepentant.

The wax seal on her door had been unbroken when they just checked the second floor, Conan thought. Plus her nightclothes were perfectly dry. Given their search pattern… "You were in Mr. Delacey's room before you came down here, right Ines-neechan? Did you see Mr. Geskel?"

Her black eyebrows scrunched defensively, then drew back again in confusion at the mention of Geskel's name. "No, I was alone in Mr. Delacey's room—ain't no rule that we couldn't search there whenever we wanted. Then that Kapoor girl found me and made me leave, so I decided to come here and search instead. You all were clambering up and down the stairs and all over the place," she pointed out. "I don't see why I couldn't."

"So you haven't seen Sp—Geoffrey Geskel?" Heiji asked.

Ms. Suarez shook her head. Then she saw Heiji's bokken. "Why are you carrying _that_ around?"

Heiji futilely moved the long wooden sword behind him. Alex came to the rescue. "As protection, of course. We are looking for the clue to a fortune, after all."

Suarez looked apprehensive at the thought of this will-hunt growing dangerous, then a new expression dawned on her face. Conan, who had seen the look on his father numerous times, recognized it immediately; Ines Suarez was clearly transported from this physical realm to one where the nascent seeds of future bestsellers abounded. "Now there's an idea. And there's even a storm tonight; if this were a story all we would need is a murder," she said dreamily.

"What's going on?!" Raina descended the stairs, her loose hair a mess of curls and pajamas mis-buttoned. She saw them all standing there, and groaned. "Are you guys all searching too?"

"Too?" Masumi said quickly. "Who else have you seen walking about here?"

"I caught Ms. Suarez here in Mr. Delacey's old room," she said, then swung her flashlight around the room and hesitated. "And I thought I saw Mr. Kett come down here, but I must have been mistaken."

 _Oh dear lord, how many people are wandering around this place?_ It look more and more like their sealing the heirs' doors had been the equivalent of closing the barn door after the horses had gone.

"After you removed Ms. Suarez from Mr. Delacey's room she just came down here instead," Hakuba informed her.

Raina groaned. "It's not like I can stop anyone from searching the house, but I do wish you all wouldn't pick the middle of the night to do it. You guys are making a racket, and obaasan needs her rest."

"Fine, fine, I'll go back to my room now," Ms. Suarez said, a little abstracted. She allowed herself to be herded back up to the second floor and into her own room, though from the gleam in her eyes Conan thought it was unlikely that she would sleep soon like a sensible person. Staying up trying to type down her ideas while they were fresh in her head was more likely.

Raina watched her turn in, then seemed to realize that they weren't going to do the same. "Are you guys going to keep on wandering?"

"We'll be extra quiet from now on," Alex promised. "It's really important…though I'm afraid we can't say why." At that, Raina gave up and went back to her and Marie's room.

By then the rain had stopped, and there was even a wan moon, casting pale light down upon the island. The five of them completed another search of the house, which turned up free of both assassin and wandering guests.

"Well, what now?" Masumi asked. "We can't find Spider anywhere. Do you think he's left the house?"

"That is a possibility," Saguru said. "Though if he is I wouldn't try to search the rest of the island for him. Not during the nighttime."

"Agreed. Let's just continue to keep watch over our clients, and we'll search outside during the day."

They rotated shifts through the rest of the night, keeping vigil over the second floor and the library window until the sun rose upon a new day. And through all those hours, they did not see a single sign of Spider, or any other living soul.

* * *

 **A/N:** This chapter was _so_ difficult to write. I had to make both a map and a timeline of character movements, and I'm _still_ not sure I didn't mess something up. When I started this story I decided to make the mystery in this installment more complicated than the one in _Viper's Den_ , and now I'm kinda regretting it.

Re: names. I picked the names Elena & Marie Semple pretty much at random, and didn't even realize that they could be related to Elena Miyano and Mary Sera. So yeah, any similarities there are pure coincidence.

Also: I finished _Never Say Die_! I haven't decided if/how the big spoiler is going to affect this series; I'll probably have to think about it.

As always, thanks for reading!


	10. Chapter 10: And Washed the Spider Out

**Chapter 10** : **And Washed the Spider Out**

The rich aroma of coffee woke Conan up with a start. He was disoriented at first—why was he in the hallway?—but as the last fogs of sleep dissipated he recalled the events of the previous night. He sat up, causing someone's jacket to slide off his back.

"Ah, you're awake, Edogawa-kun," Hakuba said. It was his cup of black coffee which Conan had smelled. Alex sat beside him in the miniature nest of jackets and blankets they had slowly turned their little surveillance corner into.

Conan rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "Did I miss anything?"

"The power's back. We've called Inspector Tazuka. Mr. Ling, Ms. Suarez and Marie Semple went downstairs for breakfast already; Hirokawa Masako-san brought up a tray for Edmund Kett, and Sera-kun and Hattori-kun are bringing the food up for us."

Hakuba had his laptop open in front of him while Alex was on his phone. "Is the cell signal back too?"

Alex shook his head. "Not yet. Hakuba's making notes, and I'm studying Japanese." He also had coffee beside him; Conan drew in a deep breath and wondered how suspicious it would be if he also asked for a cup.

Now that it was morning with the sun shining, the mood had also brightened. Spider could still be lurking somewhere waiting to attack, Conan knew, but it would be more difficult during the daytime once everyone else was moving about as well; he wouldn't want bystanders getting involved any more than they did.

"I'm beginning to give more credence to the idea that Spider did leave the house in the middle of night for some reason," Hakuba voiced similar thoughts, staring out the window. The clear sky and sapphire sea outside showed no memory of the previous night's tempest.

"Incoming!" Masumi's cheerful voice preceded her and Heiji's return, each carrying a stack of breakfast trays.

Conan looked at the neat array of little dishes and bowls, full of everything from ochazuke in its clear broth to silky steamed egg custard to matcha-and-cream Swiss rolls, and hurriedly helped Alex and Saguru clear the floor to make way for the food. "Yukiho-san made all of this?"

"Yeah. She's a little upset, actually," Heiji said as he set down his trays and snagged a golden-brown red bean bun topped with a circle of black sesame seeds. "She and Raina actually prepared even _more_ food yesterday, but a lot of it's gone missing. Guess someone also raided the kitchen last night."

"Compared to everything else that occurred, some stolen snacks are pretty benign," said Hakuba. "By the way Edogawa-kun, how did you see Spider on the top of the tower roof last night? It was almost completely dark outside."

Conan tapped his glasses. "Agasa-hakase modified one of the lenses. It can turn telescopic—though I didn't have time to use that feature last night—and enables night vision, among other things."

"Ooh, can I see?" Alex asked. Conan handed over his glasses reluctantly, and Alex tested the zoom while Hakuba watched in amusement. "That is so cool."

Heiji jabbed his chopsticks in Hakuba's direction. "Oi Hakuba, eat before your food gets cold."

Hakuba closed his laptop and sat elegantly in front of his tray. "Catching Spider may be of primary importance, but don't forget the reason we're all here in the first place, Hattori-kun. Unless you've solved Mr. Delacey's puzzle already?"

Judging by Heiji's twitch, he had indeed completely forgotten about the will-riddle. Conan looked around at Sera and Hakuba, and set the saccharine level of his voice to 'mild'. "Oh, are you still stuck on that, Hakuba-niichan? I thought you'd have figured out the trick to it already."

"You've solved it, Conan-kun?" Masumi asked in surprise.

"Yeah, I think so! It came to me last night, but given everything that's happened I haven't had a chance to test my theory yet. Once you have the trick of it, it's not that difficult." He smiled sweetly. "In fact, you could almost call it child's play."

He almost laughed at the identical expressions on Heiji, Hakuba and Masumi's faces. "I don't think Spider's going to make his move now; let's head down to talk to the others, and then we should search the island."

* * *

Breakfast downstairs was a much more subdued affair than dinner last night had been. Ling Gengxin and Ines Suarez sat on one long side of the chabudai table, Marie Semple on the opposite side facing the tsuboniwa. The three were in the middle of eating a more spread out version of their breakfast bentos, while Yukiho and Masako Hirokawa sipped tea quietly on the side facing the shrine. They quickly moved up to fetch more tea when the detectives entered.

"By the way, how was your morning walk, Marie?" Ms. Suarez said, trying to make small talk with the girl as the newcomers sat down.

Marie frowned, the massive burn on her face even more prominent in the light of day. "What? I just got up."

"Oh?" Ines blinked. "I thought I saw…never mind." Conan stared at Marie, and she immediately ducked her head, letting her long hair swing over to cover the left side of her face. A short silence fell.

"Has anyone seen Mr. Geskel?" Alex asked casually while nibbling on a piece of strawberry daifuku. Hakuba repeated the question in Japanese to the Hirokawas, who shook their heads.

"Geskel-san likes to keep to his own schedule, and he's told us to never disturb him in his room," Yukiho said softly.

"He seems like a cool guy! I wanna talk to him!" Conan beamed an adorable smile in her and Marie's general direction. Yukiho couldn't help smiling back, and even Marie blinked. "Geskel-san spends a lot of his time outside. I'm sure you can talk to him there, Conan-kun," Yukiho said.

"By the way, were you in your room all night?" Hakuba asked Ling Gengxin.

"Yes. I was tired from the trip here, and conked out pretty much the instant my head touched the pillow," the man confirmed.

"Even with that storm raging outside?"

Ling shrugged. "I'm a heavy sleeper, and I had earplugs on."

Ms. Suarez busied herself with her miso soup.

" _I_ was also sleeping in my bed all night," Marie said pointedly. "Unlike most of the rest of you, it appears."

"Oh, and how did you know that, if you were asleep?" Heiji couldn't help asking.

"You guys made Raina get up in the middle of the night to see what all the ruckus was, didn't you?" she said. "She's still sleeping upstairs right now."

"Speaking of whom," said Masumi. "Was it her idea or yours to come to Kashikijima?"

The girl's uninjured eye narrowed. "Mine. Can't I come and visit a dear friend?"

"I thought you were here for the Delacey fund?"

"Two birds, one stone," Marie said. "And to be frank, I was curious about you two as well," she said to Ling and Ines. "My mother used to tell me about her foster siblings, who lived and played with her. But you two both flew the nest as soon as you could, didn't you?"

"You think that was unfair to Elena?" Ling asked gently.

"I can hardly say that. After all, I did the exact same thing with dear uncle Edmund, didn't I?" And with that, Marie got up to leave.

Ines watched as she carried another laden breakfast tray up to Raina's room on her right arm. "I knew Edmund took her in after her father passed, and he's never been the nurturing sort, but I hadn't expected it to be that bad."

Ling Gengxin clearly agreed. "She's changed a lot."

"You've met her before?" Alex asked, surprised.

The man nodded. "Only a few times. The last was at Elena and Richard's funeral six years ago. Weren't you there too, Ines?"

"Ah yes, I saw her then too. Now I remember. All in black…she used to be such a pretty little girl."

"What happened to Marie's parents?" Conan asked.

"The house they were living in burned down when she was fifteen. Faulty wiring, apparently. They inhaled too much smoke, and Marie, well," Ms. Suarez gestured at her face. It was clear what she meant; Marie Semple would never be a pretty little girl again.

* * *

The extent of the storm's damage was more visible as they drew further away from the house. Torn boughs and leaves littered the field where they had played soccer so freely just yesterday, and several of the sago palms had been stripped of their fronds. Kashikijima's two tips sloped down gently towards its middle, so from where they stood Conan and the others could see the general shape of the island laid out before them.

"Okay, so how should we do this?" said Heiji, peering down at the white sliver of beach down in the bay, hundreds of yards below.

Alex took in the terrain. "Searching in a line would probably be best. We can start out close together and spread out as the island widens. Make sure you can always call for the people besides you if something happens, and whoever's on the bay side should keep an eye on the beach below to make sure no one's sneaking by through there."

The five of them ended up ordered Masumi-Alex-Conan-Heiji-Hakuba, with Hakuba overlooking the inner bay. As they started the sweep, still relatively close together, Conan said to Alex: "Did you put me in the middle because you're afraid I'll fall over the edge if we do run into Spider?"

"No, because the trail path runs in the middle and with your height you'd have trouble going over an oversized aloe," Alex replied.

"I could kick them really hard," Conan suggested.

From the look on his face Alex was clearly remembering the boy's power-enhanced kick from last night, only applied to some poor tropical plant. "Just stick to the trail, Conan."

Conversation gradually ceased as they spread out further apart from each other as the island widened and the foliage grew denser. Conan, walking along an established trail, had the easiest time of it. The most he had to do was hop over the occasional shrub felled by the storm and avoid any deep puddles. Hakuba and Masumi had to watch their steps carefully in case the ground near the edges was weak enough to crumble, while Alex and Heiji had the thankless jobs of going straight through the dense vegetation and muddy patches in the middle. The two of them picked up long branches to help them hack their way through, but they were the slowest to progress among the five, and thus set the pace for them all.

Around halfway around the island, the white sands of the beach below gave way to gravel, then pebbles, then rocks, which grew steadily in size. By the time they made it to the pagoda on the other tip, Conan had a few splatters of mud on his clothes, Masumi and Saguru had scraped their hands, and Heiji and Alex both looked like they'd been dragged through the bush. Other than a few false alarms involving the local wildlife, they hadn't seen another living soul.

"…Could he have left the island earlier?" Saguru wondered, before answering himself: "No, the boat's still docked in the bay."

They looked all around the pagoda, but it was Conan, gazing down into the sea who saw it first—a black misshapen bundle, difficult to pick out against the dark and irregular rocks. It took him a moment to realize what he must be seeing.

"Guys, look! Down there!" he yelled and pointed.

Lying upon the rocks below was the still and broken body of the assassin known as Spider.

* * *

Unlike the other end of the island, there were no convenient steps leading down to the water here, so Alex had to scramble down the sea-sprayed, seaweed-strewn rocks instead. His shirt—which he had just managed to get the stains from the KID heist out of—was probably permanently ruined.

"It could be an accident? Maybe he fell and broke his neck," Saguru suggested as they all climbed down, not sounding very hopeful.

Heiji was the first to reach the body. "Yeah, no. Cause of death was this wound here," he pointed to a spot over the man's heart. "From a thin blade, or some sort of arrow. Most likely a bolt from that missing speargun. He would have died almost instantly. He was thrown onto the rocks afterwards."

"Is it bad that my main feeling is 'Good riddance'?" said Alex. "I mean, he did try to kill us."

"I would be happier if he hadn't died like this, when the island was cut off by the storm," Saguru murmured, looking across the bay to the house. "Unless there's someone else hiding on this island—which we've just searched—it looks like Spider met with, and was killed by someone from Kashikijima House. Someone who is still here with us."

"There is that," Alex admitted.

"The thing is, I would have expected Mr. Spider here to be the perpetrator of any unnatural deaths, not the victim," Masumi said.

To Alex's shock, Conan had followed them down. The boy came right up to the corpse and moved to touch it. "Uhm, Conan, what are you doing?! That's a dead body!"

Masumi gave him a comforting, if absent-minded pat on the shoulder. "It's okay, he does this all the time."

" _All the time_?! How often does the kid run into dead bodies?"

Heiji snorted. "Trust me, you do _not_ want to know."

"There isn't as much blood as I would expect," Conan said, ignoring them. He tested the stiffness of the corpse, then checked his watch. "Judging by the state of rigor and livor mortis, I'd say he's been dead for eight to twelve hours. It's five to ten right now; so the estimated time of death is from around ten o'clock last night to two o'clock this morning."

"We can narrow it down more than that," Masumi said. "When did those cinder-blocks fall from the tower?"

"12:37am this morning," Saguru answered instantly. "So, from just before one am to two am, then."

Alex stared. Spider's body had clearly fallen from a great height onto the rocks. The back of the man's head was smashed in, several limbs jutted out at improbable angles, and glimpses of white bone peeked out here and there. Though it hadn't been long enough for the scent of decay to set in, the flies had already started their work. And the four of them were standing and talking over the body as casually as if it were their breakfast trays back at the house.

It made sense for Saguru if he thought about it, and he supposed Heiji and Masumi as well—if they were experienced enough sleuths they may have run into enough murders to get desensitized to the gruesome remains. But Conan…an eight year old shouldn't be able to handle such a sight.

"How are you so calm?" he heard himself say. "And why are you all _letting a child handle a dead body_?"

Saguru blinked. "He's done this before, at the Sunset Mansion and the Detective Koshien—"

"Ku-Conan-kun helps out with the Tokyo Met police force all the time—" Heiji said at the same time.

"I don't care!" Alex was so angry he didn't even notice that Saguru and Heiji were agreeing on something for once. "If a kid sees a corpse up close you take them away, give them therapy if they need it. You try to make sure they never see one again, not give them access to every dead body that comes around!"

Heiji and Conan gave each other some very odd looks.

"My Uncle Kogoro's a private detective and he always brings me on his cases," Conan finally said. "Well, he's not actually my uncle, I'm just living with him. But I've already seen too much for something like this to bother me anymore."

"And uhm, your plan might be more doable if Conan-kun wasn't a freaking corpse magnet," Heiji said. "He runs into them without even trying, somehow. I mean, ya came to visit me in Osaka and there was that serial killer who threw a body onto our car, and the guy who fell from Osaka Castle while on fire, and the guy who was stuffed into a car and thrown off a cliff…huh, at least this one fell _before_ we came."

"Plus that man who fell onto the parking lot of the hotel we were visiting, that other man who got stabbed, that woman who got poisoned in the hospital we happened to be at…" Masumi ticked them off on her fingers, before running out and continuing in her head. Saguru's eyebrows rose higher and higher as the litany continued. "Oh wow, that is a lot. Are you cursed or something, Conan-kun?"

"See?" Conan said tightly to a horrified Alex. "Unless you happen to know a good curse breaker, this is just wasting time." He turned back to the body.

Saguru had a speculative look on his face, but it vanished when he saw Alex's. He walked a few steps away, and gestured for Alex to follow. "He reminds you of yourself, doesn't he?" he said, voice pitched low enough that the others couldn't hear.

"He's too young for this," Alex said. "Hell, you guys are too young for this." Rather hypocritical, he knew, coming from someone who had lost his innocence in such matters when he was fourteen, but Alex should be the terrible exception, not just another example.

"Yes," Saguru agreed. "But Conan is not the only one of us who runs into mysteries even when we're not looking for them. In this case, there's no party analogous to MI6 who's at fault. I can't say I believe in fate, but sometimes…things like this happen."

Alex looked to the other three detectives—two teenagers and one child—hovering around the corpse like carrion birds, picking clues and conjectures out from the dead man's flesh and bones. He thought of his own tendency to attract trouble, from deciding to investigate his uncle's death and ending up in MI6 as a result, to deciding to follow a strange man out of a London pub and ending up…here. He sighed. "I know that. And I understand that we want to work with the skills that we're given. But that doesn't mean I have to like it."

* * *

"This is on the opposite end of the island from the house," Masumi mused. "I wonder what Spider was doing all the way out here."

"Meeting someone?" Heiji suggested. "It would explain why we didn't catch a single glimpse of him after midnight. He came out to meet someone at the pagoda here, and they killed him."

"Someone from the house? They'd have to come all the way through the storm." Alex still didn't like this situation, but he saw the importance in finding out how this murder had happened as soon as possible. He wrinkled his nose, trying to imagine who would trek half an hour to hold a rendezvous in that kind of weather, and why. "And then they'd need to get _back_ into the house, without anyone noticing."

"Alex has a point," Saguru said. "You couldn't open the storm shutters last night without making a racket and letting in lots of rain. The other way to leave would be slipping out the windows and over the roof, and I suppose if you left a rope hanging you could return the same way. But we were watching the windows on the second floor. No one entered or left through them."

"But we left our posts a few times," Alex reminded him. "And honestly I wouldn't swear that nobody managed to sneak by, in the darkness and rain. After the moon came out it's a different story though."

"The other guests need to be informed about this," Saguru said, glancing at his pocket watch. "And Inspector Tazuka should be arriving soon, if he hasn't already. Alex, do you mind running back to the house to tell the others? Try to go as fast as you can, and time yourself so we have an idea how long it takes to get here from the house. We'll stay and finish examining the body."

"Got it." With a lingering glance at Spider's body, Alex turned, set a stopwatch on his phone, and sprinted away.

* * *

As Alex drew closer to the house, he saw a new boat docked in the bay below, and two figures climbing up the steps. One was a middle-aged, stern Japanese man in professional clothes with broad shoulders and a neatly trimmed moustache, and the other a shy-looking girl with bowl-cut hair a year or two older than him, wearing a Totoro t-shirt. He reached the engawa at the same time they did, and saw Raina coming out to greet the new visitors.

"Hello, Inspector Tazuka?" she said to the man. "And you must be Haruko?"

"Ye-es," the girl said, awkwardly and in stilted English. "Taniguchi Haruko. You want me to start help cook?"

"You only have to speak English with some of the guests; I'll show you which ones later," Raina told her quietly in Japanese, and Haruko relaxed considerably.

"Well, where's the owner of this place?" Inspector Tazuka said as he looked around. At least, that was what Alex thought he said.

"My obaasan is, I'll take you to her right now," Raina said, and started leading him inside.

"Wait, Raina!" Alex stopped her. "I need you to translate to the Inspector. Someone's been killed."

"Wh-what?!" Inspector Tazuka only blinked at him, but Raina and Haruko both stared in shock. "Alex, are you joking?"

"I'm serious. We found a dead body on the other side of the island, on the rocks below the pagoda. It's the man you all knew as Geoffrey Geskel—" probably best to leave Spider's true identity and vocation for when the others get back— "And he was murdered."

Raina translated the message for the Inspector, who looked Alex up and down, taking in his disheveled appearance before barking some words back at her. "Who's with the body now?" she asked for him.

"Tell him the detectives who came here for a separate investigation. They're going over the body right now."

Raina passed his answer to Inspector Tazuka. They exchanged a few more sentences, then Tazuka headed inside, and went up the stairs. "The Inspector says he's going to find Grandmother and secure Mr. Geskel's room. He's asked us to check on everyone else, and get them all gathered down here," she told Alex. "Can you start with the people on the second floor? I'll fetch Yukiho and Marie and get Haruko settled."

"Sure." Raina went on her way, tugging a slightly bewildered Haruko along after her.

Alex quickly texted Saguru, then took the stairs three at a time to the second floor. Ines Suarez didn't respond to his knocks; he saw why when her doorknob turned easily under his push, revealing an empty room. Ling Gengxin, on the other hand, opened his door after a few knocks: "What is it, Alex?"

"We need you to head downstairs and to the dining area," Alex told him. "It's really important."

The man's black eyes widened. "Is it the will? Did someone find it?"

"No, it's something else. Someone's dead." Once Alex convinced Ling of the urgency, the man quickly headed down. He moved onto Edmund Kett's room a door below; no response once again, and the door was locked.

Alex was considering picking the lock when the voice he was looking for called from nearby. "Hey, you!" He looked around the corner, and saw Kett was standing in front of the library, waving him closer. "Where's the other one?"

"Hakuba's outside on the other side of the island right now, along with the other detectives," Alex said calmly. "There's been an emergency."

The other man snorted. "Probably goofing off, instead of working for me like he's supposed to be doing." He lowered his voice. "I guess you'll have to do. I found something."

" _There_ _'s an emergency,_ " Alex repeated. "We need you to head downstairs."

"Alex! There you are!" Kett almost jumped at the sound of Raina's voice. She had just turned the corner down the hall, Ines Suarez behind her. "I've found Ms. Suarez too."

"This is more important," Edmund Kett insisted in a low voice. "I'm not going anywhere until one of you sees what I found. It'll be quick. Just come in, and for God's sake make it look natural."

Alex thought that Kett's surreptitious glances towards Ines and Raina were the opposite of natural, but he sighed. "Go down first Raina, we'll be there in a minute."

He suppressed his irritation and followed the man inside the library. The sun shone high and bright through the window, heating the room to a pleasant warmth. Kett drew the bolt across the window, and as soon as Alex was inside he locked and bolted the door as well after a final glance of suspicion outside.

"Alright," Alex said impatiently. "So what clue for the will did you find?"

* * *

Saguru's cell phone buzzed with a text alert, to his surprise—he wouldn't have expected the cell service to have recovered so soon.

There were two messages, both from Alex:

 _Inspector Tazuka and a teenage helper called Haruko Taniguchi have arrived._

 _The run from the house to where we found Spider took ~20 min._

"The rain stopped around 2:13am this morning, and the moon came out right after," Saguru said, showing the others the text. "Which means that if Ling, Kett or Suarez had tried to return to the house then, we would have seen them."

"Let's say twenty minutes to run here, a few minutes to kill Spider, another twenty to get back, plus around ten minutes to climb in and out of the house. About an hour total, at the very least," Masumi calculated. "So it has to be someone without an alibi from the period of around one am to two am."

The detectives were silent. Saguru was sure their minds were all running along the same tracks. They had seen both Ines Suarez and Raina Kapoor around 1:30am, so they had alibis. Raina had thought she'd seen Edmund Kett in the living room right before too, and if she was right Kett could also be cleared.

"Hirokawa Masako-san's a li'l bit too old ta be running 'bout an' climbing buildings," Hattori said. "That leaves Ling Gengxin, Hirokawa Yukiho, an' Marie Semple. An' maybe Edmund Kett."

Their ruminations were interrupted by a call from Saguru's phone. He answered it, and snapped to full alertness.

"We need to head back to the house immediately," he said. "There's been another murder."

"What?!"

"Edmund Kett has been killed. And what's more," he added grimly. "They think Alex did it."

* * *

 **A/N:** And all the fallout from the previous night begins. Two murders and a frame job-this was a busy chapter.

As always, thanks for reading and for all the lovely reviews!


	11. Chapter 11: Alex in the Locked Room

**Chapter 11** : **Alex in the Locked Room**

Note: Spoilers for Detective Conan ep 521-523 (vol 62-63, file 646-654).

* * *

Inspector Tazuka hadn't put him in handcuffs yet. Alex could tell the man really wanted to, but Saguru had come pelting back to the house with the other detectives and persuaded the Inspector to let them take a look at the new crime scene first. As Saguru pointed out, they were on a small island and the only boats were securely locked—there wasn't exactly anywhere Alex could escape to anyways.

The worst of it was that Alex couldn't even blame the Inspector. Things _did_ look really bad for him. His gaze went once again to the stone cold body of Edmund Kett, lying spread-eagled in the middle of the library floor with a knife through his heart. There was blood on Alex's hands and clothes, and he had no idea how it had gotten there.

"Tell me what you remember. Every detail matters," Saguru said tersely. Conan and Heiji and Masumi were beside him, listening with the air of greyhounds on the prowl. The Inspector had gone downstairs to begin interrogating everyone else, and they were alone in the library.

"I was trying to tell everyone on this floor what happened and get them to gather on the first floor when Kett appeared in the doorway to this room and gestured me over." Alex repeated the conversation he and Kett had had as exactly as he could remember. "He said he found something and refused to go down without showing me what it was, and I thought it would be faster to just go along with him. We both came in here, and he locked and bolted the door and window. And then…" He shook his head. "Everything went black. The next thing I knew, I was waking up beside his dead body and people were screaming."

The detectives exchanged glances. "Do you know how this was discovered?" Saguru asked. Alex shook his head.

"Inspector Tazuka wanted to talk to Edmund Kett and was told that he was in the library with you," Masumi said. "He came here, and grew concerned when he found the door couldn't be opened and there was no response to his calls. He sent Marie Semple around the hallway to see if she could see anything from the hallway windows outside Ms. Suarez's rooms. According to Semple, the library windows looking out onto the tsuboniwa were latched closed, but their curtains weren't drawn, and she could see you lying on the floor next to Kett's body. She ran back and told the Inspector, and the Inspector broke down the door."

Saguru left the library, walked over to the hallway windows opposite the stairs where Marie said she'd looked from, and checked the line of sight. It was indeed possible to see both the library door and the middle part of the floor where Kett's body was found through the two sets of windows. He went downstairs, and brought up Marie Semple. "Are you absolutely certain about what you saw through the hallway window?" he asked her.

The girl bristled. "Yes, I'm sure."

"Both the door and the window here were barred?"

"Look, if you don't believe me, I took pictures," Marie said with a glare. She took out her phone and showed it to them. Displayed on the screen was a photo of the library taken from the hallway window. Kett's corpse and Alex's unconscious body on the floor could both be seen.

"May I?" Marie handed her phone over to Saguru, and everyone else looked over his shoulder as he zoomed in.

Both the bolt on the locked door and the iron bar across the window were clearly visible in the picture.

* * *

"Well?" Alex asked Saguru after they sent Marie Semple back down, not sure what he wanted. Or rather, he knew what he wanted—for Saguru to believe that he didn't do it—but the detective trusted in logic and evidence, both of which were completely against Alex.

"Well what?" The other teen returned, his expression revealing nothing.

"Do you think I killed Kett?"

Saguru raised an eyebrow. "Did you?"

"No!"

Saguru nodded. "Okay."

"Seriously? You believe me just like that?"

"Not quite 'just like that'. There are several things here that don't make sense. You don't have any motive I can think of for killing Kett, for one," Saguru said slowly. He hesitated, before adding: "And, well…quite honestly, if you really had killed him, I would have expected you to do it in a smarter way."

"Thanks. I think," Alex said. He looked over to a pensive Hattori. "And you think the same?"

"What? No." Heiji looked him up and down. "I should think that you did it. Almost everything points to you killing Kett, but…you see, I've been in a case like this before."

He glanced at Conan, who gave a brief nod back, and continued: "My…client was also accused of stabbing someone. He and the victim went together into a house, and footprints showed that no one else could have entered during that time, and in truth no one else did. He was found besides the victim's body, covered in blood and his fingerprints on the knife. And yet my client was innocent."

Alex wasn't the only one listening in fascination. "So what really happened?"

"There was someone with a deep vendetta against my client. He got plastic surgery so that the two of them looked identical, faked amnesia, and set up the stabbing so that he could frame my client for the crime."

Alex flinched. He couldn't help it—the image of Julius Grief rose in his mind, taunting him.

But Grief was dead. He remembered it, as clearly as if it had happened yesterday. A dark night in Cairo, raising the gun to the clone's head and pulling the trigger.

Of course, the others caught his reaction. "Does that remind you of something?" Saguru asked, voice soft but intent.

Grief had even been participating in a plan to frame Alex for an assassination. Not, of course, that he could say any of that. Saguru knew about his past, but the others probably didn't, and even Saguru didn't know that he had once killed someone in cold blood. And right now _really_ didn't seem like a good time to bring it up.

"I don't think my evil clone popped up here and killed Kett to frame me, if that's what you're talking about," he said, forcing his tone into light wryness. Saguru's mouth thinned to a line at the evasion, but he didn't press for more.

Conan froze, his eyes suddenly very dark and very wide. "Let me see Marie's pictures again, Hakuba-niichan!" Once he had the phone, he pulled up a photo and zoomed in, panning from side to side. Then he started pacing around the library, clearly deep in thought.

"In any case, we need to investigate Spider's murder as well," Masumi said. "At the very least, we need to interrogate the others and search this place; maybe something will turn up which clear Alex as well."

"So you don't think I did it either?" Alex asked Masumi. "Even though you know nothing about me?"

The girl hesitated. "No, I don't think you did it," she admitted, her green eyes troubled. "It has nothing to do with what I know or don't know about you. There's something at this crime scene which is almost impossible to explain if you really had killed him."

"Wait, there is? What is it?" Alex was pretty sure this was the textbook definition of 'guilty beyond all doubt'.

Masumi glanced at Conan and Heiji. "I don't think Inspector Tazuka has picked up on it yet, but the others have."

"Well, go tell the Inspector then."

"No, don't," Conan interrupted. He had stopped walking around and was now standing in front of the library window, staring out of them.

"Why not?"

Conan didn't say anything; only turned and gave a grim look to Hattori. The Osakan's eyes went to the window, then to Kett's body on the floor, and then widened. "Oh. Oh, _crap_ ," Heiji said.

"Precisely," Conan agreed. "This needs to be handled very, very carefully. Without proof…"

Masumi looked between the boys. "I think I know why we need to keep this quiet from the Inspector until later. But I can't help feeling that there's something you guys know and I don't. That goes for you two as well," she said, turning to Alex and Saguru.

Alex gave a weak smile. "Clear my name, and I'll try to answer your questions."

* * *

"So you're still unsatisfied with Kett's murder?" Inspector Tazuka raised his thick brows. They were downstairs on the first floor, conferring by the stairs while the other guests waited nervously for their turn to be questioned. Even Alex was there, supposedly so they could keep an eye on him. "I know he's a friend of yours, Hakuba-san, but it's pretty open-and-shut. Look at the facts: Kapoor-san and Suarez-san saw him entering the library with the victim, he himself admitted that Kett locked and bolted the door and window behind them, and then he was found beside the body. We have his fingerprints on the murder weapon, and photos showing that the bolts were undisturbed. What more do you want?"

"I dunno much 'bout Alex Rider, but something's just not right with that setup in the library, Inspector," Heiji said. Masumi nodded as well. "An' I've seen too many supposedly 'airtight' cases to ignore that feelin'—at least let us keep investigatin'."

The Inspector sighed. "I just don't know why you guys are wasting time on _this_ when there's another murder that's unsolved. This Geskel—who you say is actually an assassin called Spider, you say? — could have been killed by any of several people in this house."

"But not Alex," Saguru reminded the man. Ironically, Alex had an alibi that even the Inspector had to admit was iron clad for _that_ particular murder—he was with at least one other person the entire night Spider was killed.

Inspector Tazuka nodded reluctantly. His brows rose again when Conan pelted down the stairs and almost ran into him. "Tazuka-keibu! Forensics and the other officers are arriving soon, right?"

"They're on their way," the Inspector confirmed, then crouched down and put firm hands on the boy's shoulders, looking concerned. "Are you sure you want to stay here, kid? Why don't you go play ball or something?"

"I've already seen both bodies, Tazuka-keibu! I find this much more interesting!" Conan chirped. The Inspector stared at the teenagers and child surrounding him, and muttered something which sounded suspiciously like 'kids these days' under his breath.

* * *

The interrogations started off slowly. Ling Gengxin stuck to his statement that he had slept like a stone through the entire night, which Yukiho and Masako Hirokawa also claimed. From there, the Inspector moved on to the two who had clearly not stayed in their beds.

"Ask her to state her movements during the night," the Inspector said, indicating Ines Suarez. Alex thought that he would probably have been much more reluctant to let the teen detectives participate in the murder investigations if he wasn't forced to rely on them to translate.

"I _was_ sleeping at first, but the storm was too loud," Ms. Suarez answered. "It made me feel all goose-bumpy and frenetic, for some reason, and I couldn't fall asleep again. So I thought, why not continue the search for that will? I grabbed my flashlight, headed up to Mr. Delacey's old room, and poked around—unsuccessfully, I have to say. Then she—" indicating Raina— "found me and kicked me out, so I moved downstairs but then you guys found me too. And then I went back to my room."

"What time did you leave your room?"

"Around eleven, I think?"

Right around the time they were fighting Spider in the library, if she was telling the truth. That could explain how they didn't see her leave during their watch. "You didn't see anyone else during the night?" She shook her head.

Then Masumi remembered something. "Ms. Suarez, you said you saw Marie outside this morning?"

She hesitated. "I thought I did? I could have been wrong."

"When was it?"

"Right around dawn. I was watching the sunrise through my window, and I thought I saw someone near the pagoda on the other side of the island. It was far away, but whoever it was had bright blonde hair, you see." Ines gestured, her meaning clear; there was only one person among them with hair that colour.

"You were mistaken," Marie said coolly. "I was asleep until breakfast time."

"She was!" Raina piped up. "I was sharing a room with her, remember?"

"But you left to check on the commotion we made, didn't you?" Heiji reminded her. "You weren't in your room the entire night, so you couldn't be sure she was, either."

The blonde girl snorted in disbelief. "So you think I killed that man you found on the other side of the island? How did I get in and out of the house then?"

"Someone could have climbed in and out over the roof."

"Marie couldn't have done that," Raina said quickly, but her friend spoke over her:

"Thank you, Raina, but I think I'll have to show this. I don't think they'll just take my word for it." She shrugged off her jacket and rolled up the left sleeve of her blouse. The scars were there as well, running in irregular patches from neck to shoulder to down past her elbow.

"My arm's damaged. You can call the doctor who treated this if you don't believe me. He'll tell you that I can't lift anything heavier than a housecat with this hand." Her hazel eye was cold. "Satisfied?"

Now that Masumi thought about it, Marie had only used her right arm to carry the heavy breakfast tray that morning, and Raina had brought up her luggage when she arrived. Scrambling down the tower window and over a rain-slick roof would be nearly impossible with only one fully functional arm. Still, looking between the two girls, she wasn't sure if they could trust Raina's testimony when it came to Marie.

Was Ines Suarez telling the truth about what she saw that morning? And if she was, what was Marie Semple doing on the other side of the island at that time? Sunrise was at around 5:30am this morning, well after the estimated time of death for Spider. It didn't make sense.

Saguru changed the topic: "Your uncle Edmund Kett was your guardian after your parents died. Why did you run away?"

A splotch of colour rose to Marie's unscarred cheek. "He was not a very pleasant guardian. Why," she enquired. "Am I also being fitted for the role of _that_ murderer now?"

* * *

As Inspector Tazuka finished up the questioning Heiji waved Yukiho Hirokawa over to the weapons case. "Hirokawa-san, I think something's missing from here. Can you take a look?"

She walked over, and as she studied the case Heiji studied her in turn. Demure and unobtrusive in a pale blue yukata, she was the type who competently completed all that was asked of her, then faded into the background. The perfect Japanese housewife, only her husband was no longer around.

"Yes, I believe you are correct, Hattori-san," she said in a soft voice. "There used to be a miniature speargun which is no longer here." She paled slightly. "Was that…?"

"Yes, I think that was what was used to kill Mr. Geskel." He tapped the glass. "Can you tell me more about it?"

"Masako-okāsan bought this collection a year or two after she first opened this hotel, and it's been sitting there ever since. I haven't taken a very close look at it, I'm afraid—it's always been just part of the furniture for me."

"There's nothing else missing from here?" She shook her head, and Heiji allowed her to leave.

Spider had been killed with a bolt from the speargun, while Kett had been stabbed with a knife taken from the kitchen. Had they been killed by the same person?

* * *

While the Inspector went off to look at Spider's body, the detectives began searching the house, starting with Kett's room first. Saguru made sure Alex came along with them; he had a retort ready in case any of the others complained, but no one did.

There was nothing much of note in the man's luggage—mainly clothes, but going through the wastepaper basket, Saguru found the torn remains of a sheet of paper.

"Hey, look at this." He smoothed out the scraps and tried to piece them together.

The fruit of his efforts was an incomplete message, like someone had hastily written down the first thing he had thought of, and then changed his mind.

" _If you want your secret to stay safe, then give me my proper share_ ," Heiji read from above his shoulder, and whistled. "Looks like Mr. Kett may have been tryin' ta put the squeeze on someone."

"One of his former foster siblings, or one of the Hirokawas?" A thought struck Saguru. "He wouldn't have been stupid enough to try and blackmail _Spider_ , right?"

"No, that doesn't fit," Masumi said.

"The timing's all wrong," Alex agreed. "We've already found Spider's body by the time Kett was killed." Briefly, he wondered if this was what Kett had wanted to talk to him about, but it didn't feel right: blackmailers generally didn't try to share their information.

For what felt like the hundredth time, he tried to make sense of what had happened in the library. Someone must have knocked him out, and Kett was the only other person in the room with him, but from his observations at dinnertime their first night the man wasn't a trained fighter. Not to mention, Kett was the one who ended up dead. Even if Kett had been the one who struck him, someone else must have entered the library afterwards, killed Kett, and set the scene up to look like Alex had done it. But who? And how could they have vanished from a locked room, leaving the bolts on both the door and window in place?

* * *

Nothing else suspicious turned up in any of the guest rooms on the second floor. Frustrated, Conan and the others turned their attentions to the first floor next. Heiji and Masumi circled the area around the weapons case and kitchen, Hakuba and Alex searched through the tsuboniwa garden, and Conan padded around the rest of the floor, looking for anything that was out of place.

He almost missed it—a spot of reddish brown on the dark wood of the engawa, halfway between the genkan entrance and the stairs.

Conan stared at the smudge, and suddenly several floating pieces in his head fell into place. _Oh. So that_ _'s what must have happened_. _But why_ _…_

"We've found something!" Hakuba called out. They all rushed over, to where Alex was holding out something small and round he picked up from one of the flower pots. It took Conan a moment to recognize what he was looking at, and another to realize what it meant.

"This must have been what Kett was talking about in his blackmail letter," Alex said grimly.

"And ultimately, what he was killed for," Saguru added. "This does clear up who was responsible for Edmund Kett's death, and why Spider was here, but it still doesn't explain how Spider was murdered."

"I think I've found something that can illuminate that," Conan said, and led them to the stain he found on the engawa.

Heiji and the others leaned down, squinting—it really was difficult to see, if you didn't know it was already there. "That's dried blood, what's it doing… _ohh_."

He watched comprehension spread across Heiji, Masumi and Saguru's faces, as they followed the same chain of logic he did.

"Well, this explains a lot," Masumi said, slowly blinking.. "That bucket, for one."

"I think we have almost everything now," Heiji said, eyes glinting. "We'll need to search this floor and the attic and the roof again. The last pieces of proof should be there."

Alex looked between their faces. "Why is it that you detectives all love to make cryptic remarks instead of just explaining what you guys found?"

Conan grinned. "And take all the fun out of it?"

"We haven't figured out everything, just the general shape of it all," Saguru said, frowning. "Though now that the cell service is back, there is something we can confirm right now."

* * *

Saguru dialed Mrs. Scialdone. After explaining the general situation and reassuring her that both the inheritance and murder cases were nearly solved, he put her on speaker and asked: "There are just a few things I would like to know from you. First of all, how much are you paying per person for us to stay here at Kashikijima?"

Mrs. Scialdone quoted a sum equal to about the expected price of a local five star hotel, sounding puzzled. "Are you thinking of extending your stay?"

"Not exactly. Secondly and more relevant to your interests, have you been managing this fund for Mr. Delacey for a long time?"

"I took over the account around fifteen years ago."

Saguru did the math. "So that would have been a few years after Mr. Ling and Ms. Suarez left the household. Do you know if Mr. Delacey made any changes to his instructions for the trust then or afterwards?"

She was silent for a moment. "Yes, he did. He updated the instructions for the trust after Mr. Ling and Ms. Suarez left, and again about six years ago."

After Elena Semple's death. Saguru closed his eyes.

"Do you know what the previous versions were?" A short silence. "Mrs. Scialdone, I know this is highly irregular, but this information can help us catch a murderer."

"…I only know that in the first version, the fund was to be split equally between the four adoptees. After that he started sealing his instructions."

"Thank you, that's very helpful." He hung up after making polite farewells. "I think that pretty much settles it."

"Yes," Conan said slowly, choosing his words carefully. "But we'll have another problem soon. Tazuka- _keibu_ should be back from his inspection of Spider's body any time now. He'll probably want to move Alex to the police station on the mainland, which would be…counterproductive."

"Things would be resolved a lot faster if Alex stayed on the island with us tonight," Heiji agreed. "He's a good fighter, which we might need."

Saguru frowned. "So you want to persuade the Inspector to let him stay? That's going to be difficult."

Conan's voice was all innocence. "He can't disagree if Alex is no longer in his custody."

"We can't make Alex a fugitive from justice!" Saguru exclaimed. "If we just explained to the police—"

Heiji snorted. "He's about to be arrested for murder. Tazuka won't let him stay on the island to help us tonight, and you know it." Masumi nodded in agreement.

Conan gave a contemplative look at Alex. "Alex, how do you feel about going on the lam for a while?"

"I'm still not exactly sure why you guys can't just tell the police that I didn't kill Kett," Alex grumbled. "But yeah, I'm up for it."

Saguru groaned. He didn't expect Conan of all people to be such a bad influence…

"All in good time, Alex-kun!" The boy's eyes gleamed bright. "So, this is what we're going to do…"

* * *

 **A/N:** Thanks for reading and for all the comments and reviews! The detectives are definitely keeping things close to the chest, but a big part of what's going on will be explained in the next chapter.


	12. Chapter 12: Hell or High Water

**Chapter 12** : **Hell or High Water**

There was a short debate about what exactly 'escaping custody' consisted of. Conan and a few of the others had wanted to stage a scene which involved Alex taking Conan as hostage in front of Inspector Tazuka and other witnesses. They reasoned that there was less chance of them being suspected of colluding with him this way; Alex privately thought that the detectives simply had a taste for drama, and refused. Instead, Alex simply loaded up his pockets with a flashlight, bottle of water and some snacks, walked away into the forested part of the island, and found a nice tree to hide in.

He took out the Detective Boy's badge he'd kept even after that long night, pulled out the thin antenna on its tip, and waited. About half an hour later, the badge buzzed, and Masumi's voice whispered a single word: "Cleared."

The Inspector had bought it, then. Alex climbed back down the tree, walked down to the rocky shoreline near where they had found Spider's body, and started searching.

It took him nearly two hours to find what they were looking for: a hidden cove on the outside edge of the crescent-shaped island, slightly inland of the pagoda. Its entrance was positioned behind an outcropping of rock so that it would difficult to see even from passing boats.

Alex edged himself along the rocky walls of the entrance, trying to make as little noise as he could. Only when he was sure that there was no one else there did he stick his head out, looking into the calm pool formed by the tiny bay. A motor yacht was resting there at the edge of the pool, and the dark entrance to a small cave yawned at the back of the inlet.

 _Jackpot_. Alex debated whether to risk heading into the cave. He didn't want to risk running into whoever brought that boat in, but he needed to know if the detectives' theory was right. Curiosity won out.

The cave itself was not much more than a scoop taken out of the surrounding basalt, but at the back there was a crevice between the rocks just large enough for a grown man to pass through. Alex crouched down with his flashlight; in the sandy soil on the ground he could make out the faint impression of footprints.

Alex left the cave and crevice for now, and watched the cove from behind a waist-high rock for what felt like hours. As the sun began to drop and his stomach started growling with still no sign of anyone coming from the boat or out of the back of the cave, he ate the onigiris he had stashed in his pockets, then made his decision and went to search the motor yacht.

It was a small yacht, around the same size as the one he and the others had taken to come to Kashikijima, and completely deserted. The keys were not in the ignition. Below deck he found traces of the people who had brought the boat here—a few spare changes of clothes, snack wrappers in the bin—but what really interested him was the waist-high locked strongbox he found in one corner. He made an attempt to lift it, then knocked on its sides; Alex wasn't sure, but it sounded like the chest was empty.

He turned his cell phone on and quickly snapped pictures of everything, then left and climbed back up to the grassy level of the island's plateau. Once he found a safe bush to hide in not far from the pagoda, he dialed Conan's number, letting it ring for a few seconds before quitting, shutting his phone off again, and taking out the toy badge.

He didn't have to wait long. Less than three minutes later there was the faint buzz of static, and Conan's voice came from the badge in a whisper: "Yes?"

"It's me," he whispered back. "Are you in a secure spot right now?"

A few moments of silence, and then the sound of the shower turning on in the background. "That'll have to do. What is it?"

"I've found the hidden cove." Alex gave a brief description of its location, and of the boat docked there. "You guys are right; there is a tunnel in the back. I didn't follow it through, but I'm guessing it leads to Kashikijima House."

"Yes, we may have found the entrance on this end as well. We think it's right under the shrine on the ground floor."

"I waited for hours, but there's no sign of anyone. That means…"

"Whoever they are, they're still inside the tunnel. Yes." There was a slight pause, then Conan said: "They will try to make a move tonight."

"Do you want me to come back to the house?"

"No, we have enough people covering the entrance on this end. Stay on that end in case any of them slips past us and makes a break for the boat."

"Got it."

"I'll ping you again once we start moving tonight. Be careful, Alex."

Alex wanted to tell the boy to stay behind and be safe, but he was nothing more than a tinny voice of disapproval on the other end of a badge right now. He wouldn't have listened in Conan's stead either. Instead he simple said: "Same to you guys."

* * *

Alex kept his watch on the boat out in the bay, but after another an hour or so he got bored and finally decided to risk exploring the cave. It was fully night outside now. The crescent moon and stars shone brightly enough to illuminate the shallow cave, but as soon as he maneuvered himself into the crevice he had to turn on his flashlight.

Around ten or fifteen yards in the tunnel began to slope downward, and then suddenly there was a pool of knee-high water in front of him, stretching out as far as his flashlight beam could reach. Alex debated whether to continue or not, then sighed and carefully put a foot in.

He swore and leaped out again immediately; the water was _cold_. He brushed a hand along the surface of the walls. The rock was damp up to about a foot above the pool, and dry above that. The place lacked the smell of wet rot or the salty brine of the sea, and he couldn't see any algae or seaweed floating about—the water was clear, and quite fresh.

Alex stayed just outside the pool, and the splashes he'd made soon faded, leaving the surface of the water as smooth as a mirror. He turned off his flashlight to conserve its batteries, then grew increasingly jittery as time passed and nothing happened. The in and out of his breathing was the only sound in the darkness.

Static buzzed from his pocket, and Alex eagerly brought out the Detective Boy's badge. "Yes?"

This time it was Saguru. "We're going to open the tunnel entrance from the shrine in fifteen minutes. Are you ready?"

"Yes." Alex quickly told him about the pool of water he'd found, and the dampness of the walls. "I think this is around or just below sea level. It looks like the water covers a pretty long portion of the tunnel."

"Ah, that may explain why you haven't seen anyone on your end yet, Alex. The storm flooded the tunnel, so whoever's on our end is stuck there waiting for the water to drain out."

"Are you sure I shouldn't come back?"

"No, by the time you get back here over land this may all be over already. Stay there in case one of them gets desperate enough to swim out."

The badge went silent. Alex paced back and forth; their logic made sense, but he didn't like the idea of the others going on the offensive while he waited here for any stray fleeing rats. Masumi, Saguru and Heiji were pretty good fighters, and even little Conan had some surprisingly dangerous tricks up his sleeve. They would have the element of surprise on their side, and the yacht in the hidden bay could only have carried four or five people at most. But what if these culprits were armed?

Alex hid his electronics and the spare food in his pockets behind a loose stone, stepped once again into the water, and started heading deeper into the tunnel. He could guard this route just as effectively close to the house, after all, and this way he could also help the others in their fight if needed. And quite frankly, he was tired of waiting.

The tunnel kept on descending, and the cold water in it slowly rose, first to his waist, then to his chest, and finally only Alex's head and neck were above the water as he slowly felt his way along the tunnel in the darkness with his hands.

He shivered at first, before his body adjusted to his not-quite-swimming. It soon became a routine: take a step, reach for a grip against the walls, make sure there was enough space above for him to breath. As he repeated the motions again and again Alex went over the reason he was here in his mind.

The devil was in the details, as the saying went. The hints had been there since they first came to Kashikijima. Raina had told them Masako Hirokawa had inherited nothing but the island and the house. Yet that house soon had its entire second floor renovated, and that display case of weapons—antique trinkets, _expensive_ trinkets, and not the kind of decoration one bought if they were at all worried about cash—had been acquired only a year or two after the hotel had opened. A hotel with ten guest rooms, even at five star prices, should not be able to generate that much revenue so soon after opening even if it ran at full occupancy the entire time, which Kashikijima didn't. So if one owned a private island a good distance away from the mainland, how could one give a nice boost to one's income?

The obvious answer was smuggling. Alex and Saguru had found additional proof of it, in one of the flower pots in the tsuboniwa garden. The clay pots where topped with what looked like ordinary rocks and gravel, but they had recognized one of the slightly greasy-looking pebbles as a raw, uncut diamond.

Masako Hirokawa was definitely involved in the smuggling, and so was Spider—that was why the assassin seemed to disappear on the ground floor after Alex and Masumi followed him after his attack, he'd hid in the tunnel under the shrine—but they didn't know who else among the Hirokawas were also complicit, which was why the Alex and the detectives had come up with this plan of waiting for the smugglers to move again and trying to catch them red-handed.

He pictured how it must have happened from their end. On the evening of the day Alex and the others had arrived, the smugglers had landed in the cove before the storm began and traveled by tunnel to underneath the house. There they'd waited for night to fall, for everyone to go to bed, and for their contact in Kashikijima House to come and make the trade of money for the smuggled goods.

Then they'd tried to go back the way they'd come and found that during their wait, the storm had flooded the tunnel with rainwater, blocking their way back. Masako Hirokawa had brought them food taken from the kitchen. She may have allowed them to sneak out through the house, but then Spider had appeared, warning them that there were a group of detective brats watching the house for anyone wandering about. Lacking any other alternatives, they had no choice but to stay in their hiding spot, waiting for either the tunnel to drain of water or for the next night, when hopefully the detectives would no longer be keeping such a close watch.

* * *

By now the water was high enough that Alex had to keep his nose tilted up in order to breath. He was afraid it would completely fill the tunnel, forcing him to turn back, but then the water gradually receded again down to a relatively manageable neck level, and he could see moving lights up ahead where the tunnel expanded to a small underground cave. Several people were fighting on its rocky shore.

He counted five smugglers, one of whom got knocked unconscious by Masumi with a side-and-hook kick combo as he watched and waded closer. Masako Hirokawa lied on the ground, gently snoring—Conan must have managed to dart her. Heiji had borrowed the bokken again; he and Saguru were fighting together against three other men wielding knives. Alex mentally nicknamed them Tall, Tattoos and Skunk-stripe (for the third man's bleached hair) for convenience.

The last smuggler had simply decided to flee; the man dove into the pool and was very surprised to meet Alex. Or rather, the smuggler was wading along the pool, carefully keeping his head above water when cool hands grabbed his ankles and dragged him to the bottom. As his screams of surprise turned into wet burbles, the man forgot any martial instincts and flailed in panic instead. Alex winced as one of the smuggler's wild thrashings of the arm caught him on the jaw, but he knocked the man out a moment later, then leaned the unconscious smuggler against the cavern wall.

The sound of a soccer ball smacking against flesh resounded in the rocky chamber. The tall smuggler clutched his hand where the knife had been knocked out of it, and Skunk-stripe was also disarmed by a quick twist of the bokken from Heiji. As Masumi joined Heiji and Saguru, Skunk-stripe must have decided that the odds were not in his favour and dove into the pool as well. Tall and Tattoos, either sacrificial or optimistic, remained and faced down all three teens at once.

Alex tried to hide in the water once again, but he saw Skunk-stripe's head swivel in his direction and knew that the element of surprise was lost. The lean man approached warily, and from the easy grace of his movements Alex could tell that he would be a much tougher opponent than the previous smuggler he had knocked out.

They circled each other, ripples refracting and intermingling in the dark water between them as the two grew closer and closer.

Alex made the first move. A kick would have been slowed down by drag, so he lashed out with a karate strike above the surface instead. His opponent stepped back, then slipped down into the water with barely a splash. Alex hurriedly looked for the man, but the inconstant light fractured on the moving surface of the pool and made it difficult to see. A second later the matter was settled when something hit Alex in the back of his knees, knocking him down into the water.

He resisted the urge to breathe in or flail, and curled into a ball to make himself a smaller target to hit. Cold hands reaching for his neck found his forearms instead, and Alex swung himself forward, headbutting what he guessed was Skunk-stripe's chest.

The man was pushed back but converted the movement to a kick, which Alex just barely avoided. Then the need for air became too great. Alex shot to the surface, gasping. He tensed to see the smuggler standing still a few paces away from him, but Skunk-stripe was no longer paying attention to him. Alex glanced to where the man was looking, and froze.

The tall smuggler was lying unconscious on the water's edge, while Tattoos had backed into the pool. Saguru, Heiji and Masumi followed at a distance of several yards, dread and caution in the lines of their bodies, and Alex soon saw why: the man held a struggling Conan by the shoulders, pulling him down into the pool's depth as he backed away until only the boy's hair and the tip of his nose was visible. His threat was clear. The water here was high enough for an adult or a teenager to stand with no problems. But of course, Conan was a child.

Tattoos had his back to Alex; he didn't seem to have noticed the fight between Alex and his colleague. Alex slipped underwater as quietly as he could and began swimming towards the pair. In his peripheral vision he saw Skunk-stripe drop below the surface as well and tensed, waiting for an attack.

It didn't come. Instead from his dim view below the water Alex saw Tattoos suddenly stagger, then collapse forward, pinning Conan beneath him as he fell. The next few minutes were rather confused— Alex gave up his stealthy approach and simply ran through the water. He reached Conan at the same time Saguru and the others did, and four pairs of hands pulled the boy out of the water and dragged him onto dry land.

Conan lay there coughing up water while Heiji yelled at him in Japanese—Alex caught a few _aho_ s. Saguru waited until the boy was breathing clearly again before saying in a severe voice: " _Why_ did you stay in the fight after using up both your footballs?"

"Had…dart…left," Conan responded in between heavy breaths. "But the man…dodged." He looked at Alex. "Thanks for…throwing that rock."

"What?" said Alex, surprised. "I didn't do that."

"This wasn't you?" Masumi pointed to the unconscious body of Tattoos one of them had dumped on the ground besides them. The back of the man's head was bleeding from a nasty looking cut.

"No…" Alex stared at the wound in confusion, until he realized what must have happened. "The other smuggler! The man with a skunk-stripe in his hair. He must have been the one who threw it."

They all looked out at the pool, but the water was still and empty. Skunk-stripe had disappeared.

* * *

They all gathered in the library bright and early the next morning: Ines Suarez and Ling Gengxin and Marie Semple, Raina, Yukiho, Haruko and even Mrs. Scialdone, who had come over from the mainland upon hearing that the will case had been resolved. Inspector Tazuka was there, his clothes and moustache neat and precise, with two uniformed officers besides him, but it was Alex and the four detectives that everyone looked to.

The tension in the air was palpable. By now everyone knew about the smuggling operation, and the fight that had happened the previous night. Masako Hirokawa and the other four smugglers had been arrested and brought to the mainland, and Kazuya Hirokawa being detained for questioning. The police had gone over the hidden bay with the smuggler's yacht and the tunnel and were now canvassing the island, looking for the still-missing Skunk-stripe. Alex was officially still under suspicion for Edmund Kett's murder, but his help in apprehending the smugglers had allowed him to be present for this summation gathering.

Saguru spoke first, in a clear, precise voice: "To begin with, I would like to say that this case was a gigantic mess from the very beginning. Not only was it a minor miracle that it was solved; it was a miracle that it occurred in the first place. If the circumstances or the players were even slightly different—if the potential heirs of the Delacey fortune decided not to resolve their problem by hiring us detectives, if they had chosen different detectives, if we had not decided to come to this hotel on Kashikijima or came on a different date, or any of half a dozen other minute details were changed—that stormy night would not have resulted in two dead bodies."

"You're taking way too long at this, Hakuba," Heiji interrupted. "To summarize, we have three main mysteries here. One, who killed Geoffrey Geskel aka Spider. Second, who killed Edmund Kett. And last but not least, where Terence Delacey's will is hidden."

"That should probably be in another order, to make the most sense," Masumi commented.

Inspector Tazuka looked impatient at the long-winded explanation. "Please get to the point, detectives."

"We will," Saguru said, and smiled. "Actually, we have set up a demonstration in the attic which should be most illuminating. Come upstairs, Inspector, and all your questions will be answered."

* * *

 **A/N:** Here, as in Viper's Den, I offer a modified Challenge to the Reader. I wouldn't call this perfectly fair play (some parts of the solution are kinda out there), but I think there are enough clues to guess: 1) who killed Spider, 2) who framed Alex for Kett's murder, and 3) what Delacey's riddle means.

(Hints: the tunnel was completely blocked by water the night of the storm, but look at the layout of the island and of the house. And of course, keep in mind any cryptic remarks made by any of the detectives.)

As always, thank you for reading, and happy deducting!


	13. Chapter 13: The Truth

**Chapter 13** : **The Truth**

Inspector Tazuka looked around the cluttered attic. "Is this a joke? This looks exactly the same as the last time I saw it."

"Almost the same," Saguru said. "You see, we found something here that showed the truth of how Edmund Kett was killed."

"But Kett was clearly killed by Alex Rider there," Tazuka protested. "I know you're friends with him, Hakuba-san, but consider the facts. He was seen entering the library with the victim and then found beside his body, in a room whose doors and windows were all locked and bolted."

"Yes, but ya see, there was somethin' 'bout that scene which didn't make sense, if Alex really was Kett's killer," Heiji said. "Somethin' all four a' us picked up on." Tazuka still looked confused.

"It was Kett's corpse," Masumi said. "It was warm inside the library, but Edmund Kett's body was already completely cold by the time we got there."

Saguru took up explaining. "When a person dies, their body will drop from 37 degrees Celsius to whatever the ambient temperature is at the rate of around 1.5 degrees Celsius per hour. We entered the library to investigate at 12:03pm. If Alex really killed Kett at around 11:30 am or so, his body should have been around 36 degrees Celsius, especially given the warmth of the room. But instead it was much colder than that—colder than the air inside the library, in fact."

"Which meant two things: that Edmund Kett was not killed inside the library at all, and he was not killed around eleven but much, much earlier." Masumi pointed to the large wooden rocking chair Alex was standing besides. "And that proves it."

"But that's impossible!" Inspector Tazuka exclaimed. "I hate to repeat myself, but Kett was seen walking into the library by multiple people! He couldn't do that if he were a dead man already, could he?" Still he walked across the attic to the rocking chair, peering down at it in puzzlement.

"No, he couldn't," Conan piped up in agreement. "So the man Raina and Ines Suarez saw _was not_ Edmund Kett, but an impersonator. Someone who lured Alex into the library as Kett, making sure they were both seen, and then knocked him out and staged the scene to look like Alex had killed him. Someone who then carefully directed how the body was found to create the illusion of a locked room."

Twin metallic _clinks_ sounded as a pair of handcuffs snapped around wrist and rocking chair arm. Conan's eyes shone a brilliant blue.

"Isn't that right, Inspector Tazuka? _Or should I say, Vermouth—GET HER_!"

* * *

All four detectives had worked out that Inspector Tazuka was actually an impostor not long after seeing the setup in the library. After they found the traces of blood on the engawa Conan and Heiji informed Alex, Saguru and Masumi that this pretender was an extremely dangerous criminal they knew of. They also said that they had called for backup, but didn't give much more details than that. Sometimes Alex really despaired of the detectives' love of using big dramatic summation gatherings to explain what the hell was going on. In a way, it reminded him of a super-villain's need to monologue his plans to whoever the captive audience was (usually him).

So Alex waited rather impatiently as their plan to draw the impostor Inspector up to the attic room unfurled. Masumi fibbed that the rocking chair besides Alex was a vital piece of evidence, causing the fake Inspector to draw closer to it—and Alex. As soon as the Inspector's attention was diverted, Alex took out the hidden pair of handcuffs Saguru had given him earlier and cuffed one of the Inspector's wrists to the arm of the heavy, bulky rocking chair.

The man glanced down at his wrists, one imprisoned by the steel cuffs and the other by Alex's firm grip.

"—Isn't that right, Inspector Tazuka? _Or should I say, Vermouth?_ —"

Vermouth stared straight into Alex's eyes, and smiled.

"— _GET HER_!" Conan yelled, and the others rushed forward.

"Not bad, Alex Rider," an unknown woman spoke out of the Inspector's mouth, smooth and amused and softly enough that only Alex could hear her. Then her voice deepened into a tone and timbre Alex had last heard in a forest in Lymstock, and before that on Air Force One. "No wonder Gregorovitch is so fond of you."

Alex froze at the mention of Yassen's name, spoken in the assassin's voice. Vermouth took advantage of his shock, drove her knee into his stomach, twisted her wrist out of his weakened grip and kicked him back towards the others.

Then Vermouth contorted her left arm behind her back, produced a concealed revolver, and aimed it at Saguru with one hand. They all froze.

"Don't move," she said softly. Her right hand fiddled with a steel strip and was freed from its cuff a moment later. She walked to the ladder in the southern corner, keeping Saguru in her aim the entire time.

"You wouldn't shoot him," Conan said, moving closer to her despite frantic gestures from Masumi and Alex. "Hakuba's the son of the Superintendent General; your Boss wouldn't be pleased at the attention hurting him would bring."

"A good point, Cool Guy," Vermouth conceded as she climbed up the ladder with one arm. "But what about Akai's little sister?" Her aim switched from Saguru to Masumi, and she fired.

Conan dove towards the girl as Masumi fell to the ground. "Sera-san!"

She propped herself up almost instantly, bleeding from a scratch across one cheek but otherwise unharmed. "Never mind me, _get her_!" She pointed to the roof. Vermouth had gone up and then toppled the ladder so they couldn't follow.

Alex ran to the window on the northwest side, grabbing some rope along the way. He climbed onto the wooden window ledge, and used the rope to help him clamber up to the tower's steepled roof top.

Vermouth was already there. She heard his steps and turned to face him, a Cheshire smile on her lips. Sometimes during his climb she had ditched her Inspector Tazuka disguise. Her new face was beautiful and vaguely familiar (he thought he might have seen it on TV or in a magazine before), with clear blue eyes and long hair the same pale gold as Marie Semple's—and Alex suddenly realized that it must have been her and not Marie who Ines Suarez had seen on the morning after the storm. Her revolver was held loosely at her side, and she made no move to aim it at him.

Alex half-stood on the slanted shingles, keeping his knees bent and center of gravity low. He forced himself to focus on the woman in front of him instead of the vast, empty air surrounding them. They were four stories up, plus another hundreds of yards above sea level. If he slipped, there was a long way to fall.

"Who are you? And how do you know Yassen Gregorovitch?" he asked, calculating the space between them. Even if he could make it to her before she got a shot off, it would be too easy for one or both of them to stumble and trip over the edge.

The cornflower eyes were bright and gleeful. "So you know him too," she said, Yassen-voiced once more. "Me? I was the one who woke him up."

"You stole him from MI6's hospital?"

"Both breakout and outbreak," she nodded carelessly.

Alex's mind recoiled at the thought of the agents she had consigned to an excruciating death. Then he saw the tip of a black-haired head poke up from the hole in the roof behind her. "Why?"

She shrugged. "He is rather unique, and MI6 wasn't doing anything useful with him, so why not?"

Conan leapt up to the roof with a clatter. Vermouth saw him and backed up, all the way to the end of the corner, the thin tiled beam all that separated her from the long drop to the deep blue sea below.

"You don't have any darts or soccer balls left, Cool Guy," she said.

Conan glared. "You were the smuggler who got away. The one with bleached hair. And Spider was working with, or for you too, wasn't he?"

"He screwed it all up rather badly, didn't he? If he hadn't been killed, I may have had to punish him myself," she said. "Goodbye for now, silver bullets." Vermouth gave them a look of twisted fondness, and leapt backwards off the edge of the roof. She fell for a few seconds, and then a strip of long black fabric blossomed out above her and formed into what looked like a paraglider.

Conan whipped out his phone. "Jodie- _s_ _ō_ _sakan_ , Vermouth jumped off the top of the tower with some sort of paraglider. Tell your agents to watch out; she's armed. It looks like she's heading south towards the middle of the island…"

"Who the hell _is_ that woman?" Alex asked in frustration once he hung up. "You obviously know her."

Conan grimaced. "It's a long story." Alex glared at him, and the boy sighed. "We can have a private talk later, when this is all over. First though, we need to finish this business with the murders and the Delacey heirs. Let's get back down."

* * *

"Edmund Kett found out about Masako Hirokawa's smuggling," Heiji explained to the confused gathering after they returned one Inspector short. "We think he tried to blackmail her for it, but whatever the reason he needed to be silenced. The man you all knew as Geoffrey Geskel was in fact a criminal and assassin called Spider, here to help Masako Hirokawa with the most recent load of smuggled goods. She asked him to kill Kett for her, and he complied."

"But two problems showed up. One was the storm, which flooded the tunnel the smugglers were using. The other was us detectives. Spider realized that Hakuba recognized him, and would probably spend the night being a nuisance to his plans, possibly with our help as well. He decided to call in a colleague for back-up, but due to the storm she wasn't able to arrive until the next morning, by which time he was already dead."

"We think Spider sneaked into Edmund Kett's room through the room's courtyard window and killed him," Masumi continued. "We were keeping a watch on the hallway, but the night was too dark. After killing Kett he went out the window, moved across one room and attacked Hakuba-san. We all gave chase, leaving the hallway unguarded, and at some point he circled back and moved Kett's body up into the attic, where he stored it in one of the fridges there." They had found strands of Kett's hair inside the storage fridge earlier.

Saguru took over: "Spider's colleague is a master of disguise. She came here under the guise of Inspector Tazuka, and after meeting Masako-san she wandered through the house, supposedly to secure Geskel's room. While everyone else was gathering on the ground floor, she disguised herself as Kett, lured Alex into the library on a pretext and knocked him out. She then fetched Kett's body from the attic, arranged it beside him so it looked like Alex killed him, locked and bolted the courtyard window, and then left the library."

"The stage was now ready for a clever illusion. 'Inspector Tazuka' pretended that she couldn't open the library door and sent Marie Semple around the hallway to see what was going on through the window there. In reality, as soon as Marie turned the corner the fake Inspector entered the library and locked and bolted the door behind her. Then she simply moved right beside the window, so that when Marie looked from her position in the hall she could see how the library door and window were bolted, and not that there was an extra person hiding in the room."

Marie frowned, thinking it over. "But then how did this person get out?"

"She waited until you left your hallway post—she could check through a small gap in the curtains without being seen, then climbed out the window, closing the frame with the iron bar extended out so it would appear bolted from a distance. Then she moved along the roof over to Kett's room, and re-entered the house through the unlocked window there. You had to travel halfway around the house—she only needed to move one room over. As long as she was quick, it was easy for 'Inspector Tazuka' to be waiting impatiently outside by the time you ran back to the library."

"And once the door was broken down, Marie, all she needed to do was to keep you from taking a close look at the not-properly-barred window. Not a difficult task—you already expected it to be barred, and there were two bodies lying on the ground as a distraction."

"The Inspector sent me to fetch Masako and call emergency services right after we broke down the door," Marie recalled.

"A moment was all that was needed for the Inspector to bar the windows properly again. And voila; a locked room, complete with both witness testimony and photographic evidence that Alex was the only person who could have killed Kett."

* * *

There was a slightly dazed silence as the others processed all the information they were just given. "Wait, so who is this woman then?" Ines Suarez asked. "Being able to disguise herself like that and then setting up such a complicated frame job… you're making her sound like some sort of super criminal or something."

"Oh, the police will catch up to her, don't worry!" Conan chirped. Saguru narrowed his eyes — they were _definitely_ going to have a chat later. "But don't you want to hear about who's going to get the Delacey fortune?"

As expected, mention of the reason they had all come here in the first place distracted the heirs from all thoughts of Vermouth. "The riddle's really been solved?" Marie asked, wide-eyed.

"Yes it has." Saguru laid out the sheet of paper with the three strange shapes on the table in front of everyone. "I thought that the black and white squares perhaps spelled out a message," he said. "I was wrong; the way they were distributed had nothing to do with anything. It was a rather clever diversion which Mr. Delacey came up with; most people would have spent all their time trying to break the 'code' and gave up when they couldn't get anything meaningful no matter how they tried."

"You see, where the black and white squares were placed wasn't important," Masumi continued. "The true solution lay in how _many_ of them there were."

"We have the sheet here. As you can see, the first shape is a square made up of smaller squares, thirty-two of each colour. The second is made up of thirty-six black squares and fifty-two white ones. And in the last row, the numbers five and six are spelled using twelve black squares and twenty white ones."

Mrs. Scialdone and the other adults looked blank. "Let's start with the easiest one first!" Conan piped up. "What's square, and made from thirty-two black squares and thirty-two white ones?"

"A chessboard," Ines Suarez breathed out after a moment of thought.

"Exactly. The next one is harder, but follows the same principles. What object has thirty-six black pieces and fifty-two white ones?" The silence lasted longer this time. Saguru added: "And some of the pieces look like the overall shape there—a rectangle with a smaller rectangle sticking out of it."

Ling Gengxin straightened, his dark eyes widening. "A piano! Of course—it's in the shape of a piano key."

"Yes. You two were searching the attic before, you probably saw this in one of the boxes but dismissed it," Masumi said as she brought out a box, from which she took out the broken keyboard.

"And this was in the cabinet downstairs, along with the other board games," Heiji continued, taking out a chessboard.

"The last puzzle is probably the hardest to solve, but I think we all solved it first. Probably because we were playing with one for hours the first day we were here," Conan said, retrieving the final object from the box. It was round, and covered with twelve black pentagons and twenty white hexagons.

Raina burst out laughing: it was a soccer ball.

Using a craft knife and screwdriver from a toolbox, they dismantled the keyboard, cut a thin slit on one of the patches of the soccer ball, and pried the individual squares off of the chessboard's backing. Tucked away in each of the objects was a long thin strip of paper, which when placed together formed a single document with Delacey's signature at the bottom. Saguru scanned over the legal jargon and landed on the relevant passage:

… _I leave the sum of this fund (less the finder_ _'s prize) to be divided equally between the legal progeny of Edmund Kett, Elena Semple née Kett, Gengxin "Jerry" Ling, and Ines Suarez, defined as such before the end of this current calendar year_ …

It made sense, in a way, Saguru thought. Terence Delacey had badly wanted children. Even after the three he adopted had left or disappointed him, he simply shifted his hopes onto the next generation.

Raina's jaw dropped. "But that means…Marie, that means you!"

"Her and Ling Gengxin, I believe," Saguru said. When Ling looked confused, he explained: "This says the money will go to any of Delacey's grandchildren-by-adoption living or born before the end of this year, if I've read it correctly. You said your first child is due in November, correct?"

"Yes, that is valid," Mrs. Scialdone agreed. "The money will be divided evenly between Ms. Semple and Mr. Ling's child. Unless Ms. Suarez also manages to acquire a child before the end of the year, in which case it will be split three ways."

Ines snorted. "You mean either I get knocked up or somehow go through the entire adoption process before December? No thanks, I wasn't planning on having children, and I'm certainly not going to get one just to inherit a pile of cash. I don't care if that's what Mr. Delacey wanted—that's a crappy reason to raise a kid for."

Ling looked at Mrs. Scialdone. "Can't we agree to give some part of our portion to Ines? I don't want her to be the only one left out of the inheritance."

Mrs. Scialdone shook her head. "I'm sorry, the fund can only be divided according to the terms of the will."

"But the prize for finding the will, that's still open, right?" Conan piped up.

"Yes, now that you've mentioned it." The woman looked around at the gathered teenagers. "So which one of you solved this puzzle first?"

Saguru, Alex, Masumi and Heiji all looked at each other. Then by silent consensus their gazes went to Conan. "Conan-kun did," Heiji said. "I think he figured it out right after our soccer game the first night we were here, didn't you?"

Mrs. Scialdone stared, obviously skeptical, but no one contradicted Heiji. "Then how are we supposed to figure out who to give the finder's prize to? He doesn't represent anyone, does he?"

"Of course I do!" Conan said, smiling beatifically. "I'm representing Ines-neechan!"

After a pause, Ling said slowly: "Yes, that's right. I agreed to work with Hattori and Hattori alone. That is what was written down in the contract."

"And you agree that this child had been representing you?" Mrs. Scialdone asked Ines Suarez. She gave a dazed nod. "I guess that's decided, then."

Ling Gengxin leaned back with a grin on his face, then leaned forward for a high-five from Ines, then almost fell when she wrapped him in a tight hug instead. Raina took up Marie's hands in her own and swung them, beaming a smile like the sun at her friend, who was clearly still processing the fact that she was a heiress now. The atmosphere was almost jubilant.

What a pity it was, Saguru thought, that they couldn't stop here and leave thing like this.

"Unfortunately, we're still not finished," he said.

"When we started we said there were three mysteries, didn't we? The death of Edmund Kett and the solution to Mr. Delacey's puzzle has been explained, but there is still one more truth to reveal: who killed the assassin known as Spider, and how."

"Yes, we've figured that out too. What's more, Spider's killer is standing here in this room, right now."

* * *

 **A/N:** I ran out of time to make my final round of editing checks, but hopefully there aren't any major blunders here.

As always, thank you all for reading!


	14. Chapter 14: And Nothing But the Truth

**Chapter 14** : **And Nothing But the Truth**

"And that person is you, Raina. You killed Spider."

Marie whipped around to face Saguru, indignant on her friend's behalf. "No way! Why on earth would she—" Then she saw the expression on Raina's face. "Raina, tell them you didn't do it!"

Alex didn't understand either: "Hakuba, you and the others were sure Spider was killed between one and two am. We saw Raina and Ms. Suarez in the house just before half past one. She wouldn't have had the time to leave and get back." It had taken him twenty minutes to run between this house to where they found Spider's body—travelling back and forth would take around an hour at least.

"Yeah, you guys suspected me because I didn't have an alibi for that time!" Marie agreed. "So how come you're accusing her now?"

"Because our first theory was wrong," Conan said. "Spider was not killed between one and two am, but more than an hour earlier. And his killer _never left the house_. Come up to the attic again, all of you, and we'll show you."

In the deadened silence that followed as they obeyed, Conan did not look at Raina, stricken and still, but at Heiji, who was hauling out ropes and wooden beams from a pile in the corner and began climbing the ladder to the roof, talking as he went:

"When we searched the ground floor last afternoon, we found traces of dried blood on the engawa. That raised the possibility that Spider was actually killed here inside this house, not where his body was found. But that posed a problem; how and why did his body end up on the other side of the island?"

"The underground tunnel was blocked by both water and irritated smugglers. A person could climb these walls with the aid of a rope and get to the other side of the island by themselves, but while carrying a corpse? It'd be extremely difficult. Not to mention, why bother carrying a dead body all the way across the island when you can just toss it into the sea here? And then there was the matter of those falling cinder-blocks, and of course the bucket."

"The _bucket_?" Ling echoed.

"What Hattori means is that around half past midnight on the night of the storm someone threw down a pile of cinder-blocks from this tower down to the tsuboniwa courtyard," Masumi said. "It almost hit Alex, and we assumed that it was Spider attempting to kill one of us. When we ran up here to investigate, we found that the metal bucket used to haul things up to the rooftop had been removed from its axle and placed on the floor, with the rope coiled neatly inside."

Raina's eyes had gone wide with shock. Ling still looked completely lost, and he wasn't the only one. Conan sighed.

"The bucket must have been used to haul the cinder-blocks and other materials up to the roof, but why would whoever was using it take it off after they were done? Especially since they must have been in a hurry, with the attention the crashing cinder-blocks would have drawn to the roof. It's a small detail, but it didn't make sense. And then we thought of something that would explain it all."

"You see, all of our reasoning about the timing rested on the assumption that Spider—and in turn his killer—go to the other side of the island by walking there, which would take at least an hour both ways," Saguru said. "But Kashikijima is shaped like a crescent, or a horseshoe. If one cut across the water between the two tips it would take a fraction of the time."

Ines Suarez stirred. "That would be much faster, it's true," she said. "But there was a tempest outside that night. No one would have chosen to swim across the bay in that weather."

"No one did," Masumi said, as Heiji finished tying the beams together into a recognizable shape. "No one travelled across the island with Spider's body by land or sea that night. But what about by _air_?"

Alex recognized what Heiji had constructed from the rope and wooden beams from science projects and history textbooks, and almost laughed in disbelief.

It was a simple trebuchet catapult. A long wooden beam acting as the arm swiveled around the southern roof beam, the rotating axle which had been used to draw up the metal bucket functioning as the pivot.

"The cinder-blocks weren't thrown as a murder attempt—they were used as a counterweight, to fling Spider's body across the island." Conan looked at Raina, who had closed her eyes. "But they were too heavy, broke out of the rope used to tie them together, and fell down into the courtyard. Isn't that right?"

She opened her eyes, and looked at Alex. "I'm sorry. I didn't expect the rope to break, and I really didn't expect it to almost hit you."

A keening sound came from Marie, and Raina clasped her pale hands gently in her own. "I was hoping if I stayed quiet no one would figure it out, but that's clearly not the case. It's as they said; I killed that man."

There was an ocean's worth of love and grief in that half lovely, half ruined face. "Dear God, _why_?"

"That's the one part we couldn't figure out, but…it has something to do with the fire Marie was in six years ago, doesn't it?" Masumi offered tentatively, looking at the pair.

Raina nodded. "I was there too. I went to Marie's house for sleepovers all the time, and on that day…Marie's parents had gone to bed hours before, but Marie and I stayed up chatting on the couch until she dozed off. I'd wandered upstairs to the attic—I can't even remember why anymore. Maybe I heard a noise, or I wanted to fetch something? Anyways, there was someone there—a man in all black, with these three glowing red lights on top of his mask."

"Spider."

"Yes, though I didn't know it at the time. He looked inhuman, like something from a nightmare. I tried to shout, but those red lights started spinning, and I got dizzy…and the next thing I knew I was waking up on the floor of the attic, and Marie was shaking me, and the house was on fire."

"She had come back for me, you see. While she was bringing us out, a burning section of the wall fell on top of her. That's how she got those scars," Raina said. "Everyone told me I dreamt or hallucinated the figure I saw, and I believed it too. Until two nights ago."

Alex suddenly knew how it had happened. "You saw Spider in that black suit!"

"And then you secretly took a weapon from the display case in the living room," Heiji said.

"Yes—I didn't link Geoffrey Geskel to the arsonist from my memories, not until I saw him through the tower window, in that strange suit with the red goggles. He was climbing down the tower, and as I watched he landed outside the house, walked around to the southwest end, and started climbing over the roof again."

"So that's how he got to Kett's room without being seen," Saguru murmured.

"I thought that he had reappeared to kill me or Marie, to finish the job he did years ago. I didn't feel safe, and then I remembered the display case in the living room, so I snuck down there. The speargun looked functional and it seemed like the best option—I couldn't imagine going up close to that black-and-red figure—so I took it out and loaded it, just in case."

"Just then I heard the sound of people talking, only the voice wasn't anyone I recognized. I crouched down behind the display case, and heard whoever it was mention Spider, and 'the other side of the island'. It seemed to be coming from the shrine!"

"You overheard the smugglers," Saguru said. "They were probably talking about the blocked tunnel, and transferring the goods by crossing the island instead."

"Once the talking was gone I waited there for some time. I didn't want to run into anyone, so I slid back one of the shoji panels and walked around the house using the engawa. With only my torch for light, and the storm shutters on one side and the shoji on the other, it felt like I was travelling in a dark tunnel. I'd almost made it to the stairs…only I ran into Spider. Or rather Geoffrey Geskel—he had taken off that strange mask, but I recognized the black clothes. He moved slowly, like he had been injured in the chest." Conan winced slightly.

"Something hit the storm shutters outside then—probably a branch, and I startled. He saw me, standing there terrified in my pink pajamas with my arms behind my back. I don't think he knew I had eavesdropped or that I knew who he really was," Raina said thoughtfully. "Or maybe he did, and just thought my grandmother wouldn't have wanted me dead. Either way, he just laughed, and ordered me to go back to my room like a good little girl. And I shot him."

"He must have died instantly, because he just dropped to the ground and didn't move again. I stood over him for I don't know how long before I realized there was a problem. I had killed a man, in a house stuffed full of detectives. I had to get rid of the body somehow. And well," she shrugged. "You know the rest."

"You carried his body up to the roof, made that catapult, and flung him off," Conan said, sounding morbidly fascinated. "I assume you discarded the speargun? Probably along with the nightclothes which got soaked and bloodied."

"Yeah, I wrapped it all into a bundle and threw it into the sea. How did you know?"

"Your pajamas were misbuttoned when you met us downstairs, like you had to change in a hurry. But why aim the body at the other side of the island…oh, you wanted to implicate the smugglers, didn't you?"

She nodded. "I didn't know they were smugglers, but I thought if the body was found outside, since the house was sealed up you would suspect that there were other criminals on the island, and think that they were his killers."

"That might have worked, if the tunnel hadn't been flooded," Masumi commented. Without that, the smugglers would probably have managed to make a clean getaway, and when they'd found traces of the operation they would have assumed that Spider had been killed in a double cross. Then again, if the smugglers hadn't been trapped underneath the house, would Spider have stuck around long enough to run into Raina in the first place? That storm had thrown wrenches into _everyone_ _'s_ plans.

* * *

"But why did this Spider set fire to my house all those years ago in the first place?" Marie asked in a wobbly voice, her face downcast.

Masumi paused. "This is just a guess, but I think…your uncle may have hired him. That may be how he figured out that there was something criminal going on in this house so quickly. Once the London police have a chance to perform a full re-investigation we may know for certain."

"…But _why_?"

"Again, this is conjecture, but did Mr. Delacey tell you about the fund he had set aside for you when you were growing up?" Saguru asked Ling Gengxin and Ines Suarez. They both nodded. "Initially Mr. Delacey simply decided to split the money equally between the four of you. Then when you two left, he made a change to the terms. I believe he removed the two of you from the inheritance, leaving the money split between the remaining siblings Edmund and Elena. Edmund Kett likely thought the same thing as well."

From the spreading horror on their faces, they understood. "So he hired that assassin so he would be the sole inheritor? But he was wrong!"

"Mr. Delacey made another, final change to that will after Elena Semple's death," Heiji said. "Kett probably thought it was to leave him all the dough, but instead it's what you guys saw earlier. I wonder if Mr. Delacey suspected the truth."

"So he decided to leave everything to the next generation instead, and hope it works out better for them this time," Conan finished softly.

"Wait!" Marie cried out as the two uniformed officers took Raina into custody. "You can't—that man was an assassin—he murdered my parents _and_ my uncle. She doesn't deserve to go to prison for that!"

Alex suddenly spoke up. "I agree," he said. "Spider was a cold-blooded murderer. He'd also attacked us earlier that night. I don't think it's fair."

"It's still murder, even if the victim was scum, Mr. Rider," Mrs. Scialdone said as gently as she could. "The judicial process has to be followed. But I'm sure the extenuating circumstances will be taken into account, Ms. Semple. An argument can be made for self-defense—"

"She did it for me. Revenge and protection, for me." The girl was openly crying now. At a nod from Saguru, the officers released Raina, who walked over to Marie.

"It's only fair. Marie, you got that scar because you came back for me."

"And for you, I'd do it all over again. But he wasn't worth your freedom, Raina."

"Yeah, I realized that." Raina shrugged. "But it was too late by then—he was already dead." She carefully wiped a tear from the burned half of Marie's face, and leaned down for a soft, gentle kiss.

Masumi was the only person who didn't look surprised. "What?" she said, glancing around at the shock on the boys' faces. "They've been thick as thieves from the start. I thought it was pretty obvious."

* * *

"Well, at least that wasn't a complete loss," Vermouth said, feeling the wind whip through her loose hair as the police yacht she had appropriated drew farther and farther away from Kashikijima.

Bourbon, who was the one steering the yacht, shot her a doubtful glance. "From your account, we've lost Kashikijima as a future site for smuggling, one of our operatives has been killed, and you were nearly captured by a group of teenagers and a child," her sometimes-partner pointed out. "Not exactly something to boast of, Vermouth. I doubt the Boss would be happy to hear that particular detail. Or Gin."

"Tell them, then," Vermouth said, completely relaxed. Bourbon wouldn't purposely raise Conan to the attention of the Organization any more than she would. He was just trying to needle her.

"—Or maybe I should tell that new hire of yours," he continued, just as casually. "Why did you pick him up, anyways?"

"Maybe I want to form a team of my own. We'll be the blond trio."

"That's going to make undercover work more difficult."

She tilted her head at the look on Bourbon's face. "Why, don't you like Gregorovitch?"

"I don't have an opinion about him one way or the other," Bourbon said. Vermouth was nearly certain he was lying. "Just wondering why I'm the one here driving the getaway boat instead of the newbie."

"He's running an errand for me elsewhere." Bourbon waited, but she didn't elaborate. Instead Vermouth took out a wrapped packet from underneath her jacket. "And as for Kashikijima…I did manage to get these." She plucked out a rough gem—a fist sized rock with a thick vein of black opal running through it—and waved it cheerfully in front of Bourbon.

The opal flashed like a fractured rainbow in her hand. "Where did you get those?"

"Hirokawa Masako was supposed to pass these along, but I thought it would be a waste to let them languish in police custody. Not a bad consolation prize, wouldn't you say?"

Bourbon gave a wry smile of acknowledgement and returned his attention to steering. Vermouth closed her eyes, enjoying the feel of the sun on her face.

Tooru Amuro (or whatever his real name was) can go and try and fish for information about Gregorovitch all he liked, but she wasn't going to bite. He had already discovered one great secret of hers; she wasn't going to let him find any more.

She had sent Yassen Gregorovitch to New York, but it was time to call him back. It was time that he took his initiation test into the Syndicate.

Vermouth leaned back into her deck chair, her eyes still closed, and smiled. Oh yes, she had _plans_.

* * *

On their last day on Kashikijima, Masumi found Marie Semple in the library, scowling at the cell phone in her hand as if it were growing something green and slimy.

"—and of course you must come and visit, I don't think you've seen my Charlie for years, have you? And you two are the same age too!" A high, tittering laugh came from the phone. "The spa waters here are legendary, and let me tell you a little secret: they have some _very_ discreet plastic surgeons here, too, so if you want something done about your face now—"

Marie noticed her, turned the volume down on her phone and hit the mute button. "Sorry, did you need this room?"

"No, it's fine." Masumi gestured. "Who's she?"

"An old family friend. Mrs. Ardene Douthett-Rawles, who seems to have suddenly remembered my existence again now that I'm a presumptive heiress instead of just a scarred orphan. I'm actually rather amazed she got the news so quickly." From the weariness in Marie's tone, this wasn't the first such _old family friend_ who had called.

"Oh." Masumi frowned. She would have expected Marie to hang up on the woman instantly.

The other girl grimaced. "I know. But Mrs. Douthett-Rawles and her lawyers took her two ex-husbands to the cleaners in divorce court, despite the fact that _she_ was the one having an affair at least once. I'll need all the legal help I can get for Raina."

"Try Kisaki Eri _,_ " Masumi said instantly. "She's one of the best, and she's experienced with criminal cases, both Japanese and international. She's the mother of one of my friends, so I can give you an introduction if you need it."

"Thanks; I may take you up on that." Marie unmuted the phone, and managed to make a polite, if slightly sarcastic reply to Mrs. Douthett-Rawles, and ended the call soon after.

A hesitant look passed over Marie's face then, and she self-consciously brushed her scar with one finger. "Do you think I _should_ get something done about this, now that I can? If there's money left after the legal fees, that is."

Masumi took in that face: half pretty, half hideous, with a slow flush rising on the side with pale smooth skin. "I should, shouldn't I? It'd be nice to walk down the street without scaring children."

"You _will_ scare children if you keep it like that; I can't lie," Masumi said slowly. "Anyone older who judges you by your face alone isn't worth your regard. And children learn; Conan-kun was never scared of you, was he?"

"Conan," Marie said, "is a very strange child."

"That's true," Masumi chuckled, then grew serious again. "It's your choice, Marie. Raina loved you, before and after the fire. Ms. Suarez and Mr. Ling both like you. And we may have treated you a bit harshly during this case, but that was for the investigation, not because of your scar. Just remember that there are people who can see past it."

"I…have been unfairly sharp with you guys as well. Sorry about that."

"It's nothing, really." Masumi hesitated. "So are you going to get reconstructive surgery?"

"Maybe—I'll have to consider it some more," Marie sighed. "But that's all in the distant future. First I'm going to wait for Raina."

* * *

That night, Alex and Saguru once again waited until all the other guests had gone to bed before sneaking out of their room. They walked across the length of Kashikijima under the pale moonlight, Saguru glancing over at Alex every now and then. Alex had been taciturn and distracted all day, and Saguru thought he knew why.

He broke the silence: "You're still not satisfied with what happened with Raina, are you?"

Alex slowly shook his head. It was too dark for Saguru to see his expression clearly; he could only hear Alex's voice, steady and serious. "I'm with Marie on this. Raina killed an assassin. Someone who tried to murder _you_. Did you realize, Spider could have easily killed her as well?" he said. "The only reason he didn't was because he didn't expect her to be a threat, and because he was injured from Conan kicking that football straight into his ribs during our fight earlier. Given that, I can't be sad that things ended up with Raina alive and Spider dead, instead of the reverse. And I do think it's unfair that she could spend the rest of her life in prison for this."

"I doubt Raina will get the full life sentence, given the circumstances. She's young, unlikely to be a danger to the public in the future, it wasn't premeditated and it could be argued that she had been in fear for her life. She'll probably get around five to ten years."

Alex stopped walking. "But you _do_ think she should serve five to ten years."

Saguru answered with the certainty of a lifetime's worth of listening to his father. "Yes. She committed a crime; she should be punished for it."

There was a long pause, and then Alex said: "I've done the same thing before—killed a killer, someone who was evil. So by your code, I should have been punished as well."

Saguru knew Alex had been a spy, and a very good one, and good spies were generally not known for their mercy. Still, it was difficult to think of the teen beside him as someone who had blood on his hands. _Alex has killed before_ , Akako had told him once, but he had been rather preoccupied then. Afterwards, it had been easy to forget, covered by other memories: Alex stumbling over kanji characters and helping out on cases and—yes, being an unusually skilled fighter. Not liking the implications, he reached for more details instead. "Did you try to cover it up?"

Alex's mouth was a thin, harsh line. "No, the government did that for me. Couldn't have things leaking out that would make it inconvenient for MI6 to keep using me, I suppose." The pagoda was in sight, but neither of them moved towards it.

"Soldiers kill in the line of duty—" Saguru heard himself say, and stopped. Alex had been _fourteen_ when MI6 first started using him.

"Oh, it wasn't like that," Alex said bitterly. "Julius Grief—that was his name—would have gladly killed me, but he'd been hit by a car and was wounded. Crawling on the ground. He was taunting me about how he'd help kill Ja— my friend. I could have disarmed him easily, but I killed him instead."

One of these days, he _really_ needed to get the details behind Alex's missions. Saguru's head swam. "Why are you telling me this? I can't do anything to waive Raina's punishment, or enforce yours long after the fact when your missions are all classified. I don't want to either." If that made him a hypocrite, he would accept it. It suddenly came to him that Alex's view of justice may be more like KID's or Akako's than his own. He wasn't sure how to feel about that.

"Just giving you a heads up. I hope we won't need it." Alex looked to the pagoda, where Conan, Heiji and Masumi were waiting for them. "But if this meeting ends up going how I think it will, you might be glad to have some prior warning."

* * *

"We used the tunnel," Masumi greeted as Alex and Saguru walked up. "Now what's this all about?"

"Alex and I thought that time had come to put our cards on the table," Saguru said. "It's become clear that several of us here have information relating to the same matter, and I believe we may be able to help each other, or at least try not to unintentionally obstruct each other's efforts." He took out a small box-like device with several small antennas sticking out of it from his pockets and turned it on.

Masumi raised her eyebrows. "Signal jammer?"

Saguru nodded. "The latest prototype from Hakuba Labs. Given the importance of what we are about to discuss, I would like to take as many precautions as possible."

"The same matter?" Conan said slowly, watching them with those too-mature eyes.

"Oh, you know what I'm talking about," Alex said. "That woman—Vermouth, you called her. She was working with Spider, who Hakuba'd been after. And," he hesitated, "she seems to know someone who's a person of interest to me as well."

"You mean someone who's related to your spying activities?" Heiji asked bluntly. Then, unceremoniously: "Yeah, Conan and I both found out about your past with MI6."

" _Oh for goodness sakes_ , is there anyone who _doesn_ _'t_ know about it by this point?!"

Masumi raised her hand. " _I_ certainly didn't. What spying?" Then she did a double-take. "Wait, did you say _MI6_?!"

Saguru coughed. "I believe the most efficient way to proceed would be to do this round-table style."

Alex groaned. This was like the get-to-know-me speeches at the start of a brand new school year, only ten times worse. "Fine, I might as well start."

"Before that, there's someone else who should be here." Saguru turned outward to the dark landscape, and raised his voice. "You might as well join us now!"

Silence, except for the stir of leaves and nighttime insects and the low hum of the jammer. Then a figure dressed in long pants and a dark t-shirt slipped out of the vegetation. Alex recognized the round face and bowl-cut hair of Haruko Taniguchi.

"Haruko?" But no, her movements were too stealthy, too silent. "Who are you?"

She pressed a dramatic hand to her chest. "You've forgotten me already, Alex-san? Was I so unmemorable?" The voice was smooth and male, and instantly familiar.

"Kaitou KID." Conan sounded more resigned than anything else. "I thought it might have been you."

"But why are you _here_?" asked Heiji.

The phantom thief shrugged. "I caught rumours of a gemstone smuggling operation around Kashikijima, and made preparations to come investigate undercover. Unfortunately, thanks to the storm, I didn't arrive until most of the fun was already over."

"Fun was not how I would have described it," Alex muttered under his breath.

"You came for Spider as well, correct?" Saguru guessed. KID nodded. "It appears he was a part of the same organization as this Vermouth woman that Edogawa-kun knows. You say you know of another member, Alex?"

"Kind of." Alex took a deep breath, and decided to begin at the beginning. "You all might as well know—though it seems most of you do already. When I was fourteen, MI6 recruited me as a spy—unwillingly, I might add—after my uncle's death. Turns out it ran in the family. I quit when I was fifteen, because the missions had…taken too much." His school-life, his normalcy, his innocence. And Jack. "While I was with Hakuba in Lymstock this summer, I saw someone I knew from that world. He's an assassin called Yassen Gregorovitch, and I had thought that he was dead. Then during her escape Vermouth hinted that she's responsible for his reappearance."

"So you think this Gregorovitch person is now working for the same people as Vermouth?" Conan asked.

"It's extremely likely," Saguru said. "You know who they are?"

The boy hesitated. "Yes. Hattori and I have been trying to bring them down for a long time now."

Alex's mind boggled at the thought. "By a long time…were you a toddler when you started crime fighting or something?" That made his own adventures at fourteen seem positively behind schedule in comparison.

Dear god, if MI6 or another intelligence agency ever found out there was someone even _younger_ they could use…

Conan grimaced. "Not really. It's a very long story, and rather difficult to explain."

"I think I can provide a summary," Saguru said softly. His next words drove all images of little baby spies out of Alex's head:

"Edogawa-kun, you're Kudo Shinichi, aren't you?"

* * *

 **A/N:** Congrats to Ai Huiyuan, who correctly guessed that a catapult was used to dispose of the body _and_ chose Raina as the main suspect!

As always, thank you all for reading! One more chapter to go!


	15. Chapter 15: Cards on the Table

**Chapter 15: Cards on the Table**

Conan's face froze, then relaxed into casual skepticism. Heiji bristled, while neither Masumi nor KID looked particularly surprised—they had both known already, then. Alex was staring as if he was having doubts about Saguru's sanity.

"I first suspected when I saw you playing football here with the others," Saguru said. "I had noticed how much you resembled Kudo before, of course, from your physical appearance down to your deductive abilities, as well as how many of the people you were close to also knew him. All that could have been explained by his being an older cousin whom you idolized. But what that couldn't explain was how the way you moved in that match was almost identical to the way Kudo Shinichi played football, in a fan video I'd seen before."

The boy raised his eyebrows. "I wouldn't have thought you'd put stock into such an outlandish theory, Hakuba-niichan."

Saguru thought of Akako bringing down vengeance in the form of vipers, of Kaito pulling off miracles as if they were rabbits out of a white hat. "Let's just say that my horizon for what is and is not impossible has vastly expanded since a year ago."

"All ya have to go on is how he plays soccer like Kudo?" Heiji scoffed, but his eyes were darting panicked glances at Conan.

"No. After I thought of the theory, I called my Baaya before dinner and had her look up Kudo Shinichi's fingerprints. I received them this afternoon and compared them against ones I discreetly lifted from Edogawa-kun's drinking glass earlier. They were a perfect, if slightly shrunken match." Complete silence. "That is pretty definitive proof, I would say, even though I admit I have no idea _how_ you became like this," Saguru finished mildly.

Conan closed his eyes, and sighed. After a long pause he opened them again and took off his glasses, staring back with that deep blue gaze.

"Yes, you're right. I am Kudo Shinichi."

* * *

Alex's jaw dropped. Hakuba looked pleased but also puzzled. "I know this is an extremely obvious question to ask, but how on earth did you turn from a teenager to a child?"

"I would like to know the details of that as well, tantei-kun," KID said. Masumi remained silent.

Shinichi looked around at them all, and grudgingly realized that he wasn't going to be able to get out of explaining this. "To make a very long story short: around two years ago I got force-fed an experimental poison by a member of the same organization Vermouth works for. Only instead of killing me without a trace like it was supposed to, it shaved about a decade off my age." Each word felt like it was being prised out of him with a crowbar. Like something long buried deep, now suddenly torn out of the earth and left exposed in the open air. When was the last time his secret had been revealed like this, and to so many people?

"Wait, you're telling me that some pill shrunk you down from a teenager to an eight year old?" Alex stared.

"I know." Shinichi waved his hands in front of his short child's body. "I would never have believed it if it hadn't happened to me. It's, well, it's like something out of a bad science fiction novel. Yet here I am."

"It's the truth," Heiji affirmed. "I figur'd it out too — the _second_ time I met 'Conan'," he added a little bit smugly.

"Yes, but you also saw me as Kudo briefly," Shinichi pointed out. "Hakuba deduced it without that, even if it took him longer." He looked between KID and Masumi.

"I was eavesdropping," the phantom thief admitted. "And of course, I remembered Kudo Shinichi from the clock tower heist."

"I met you once before, years and years ago, when you were…well, around the same age as your current form," said Masumi. "At the beach. You've probably forgotten by now."

"No…I think I remember now," Shinichi said slowly. "A case happened there too. You were with your family…"

"So that's how everyone else knew about you," Alex said, still looking rather dazed. He gestured between Kudo, Hattori and KID. "I have _so many questions_ , but before we move on, I'd like to go back a little. Hakuba deduced my past with MI6 after a kidnapping incident in London, but how did you all find out about it?"

Shinichi and Hattori looked at each other, and Shinichi shrugged. "Haibara knew there was _something_ going on with you after your adventures in London and Lymstock, so she asked me to investigate you. I have some contacts in intelligence services, and well, we ended up getting an incomplete version of your intelligence file."

"How does Ai—ohh, she's like you isn't she?" Ai's un-childlike behaviour and maturity was suddenly and entirely explained.

"Yes, though I would rather she told her story herself."

"I would like to meet her again as well," Masumi piped in.

"…She's not going to be happy this many people found out about us, but I'll see what I can do." Kudo turned to Kaitou KID. "You found out about Alex through eavesdropping as well, I suppose?"

"No. Tantei-san is very diligent about his bug sweeps." KID looked at Saguru, and hesitated. Reluctantly, he said: "Koizumi-san told me about it."

Saguru sputtered. "How on earth does _Akako_ know about Alex?"

"How does she know you?" Alex wondered aloud at the same time.

Conan's—no, Alex corrected himself, Kudo's—eyes suddenly brightened. "She helped you out at the Tiffany heist, didn't she KID? The two of you swapped places."

Saguru looked like he wanted to throttle KID. "No wonder you didn't have any scars the next day. _She_ was the one who got shot. Why on earth did you let her get involved? Why didn't you stop her?!"

"Have you _met_ Akako?"

"That's all very well, but how exactly does she know about me?" Alex interrupted. "As far as I know Akako doesn't have any connections to the police or to intelligence services … does she?" At this rate, he wouldn't even be surprised.

"Koizumi-san knows a rather disturbing amount of information she's not supposed to." KID exchanged glances with Saguru. "As for how… perhaps we should wait until she's back to tell them?"

Saguru still looked angry, but he nodded. "I agree. It is rather difficult to believe without seeing it in person."

Heiji narrowed his eyes. "What on earth are ya guys talkin' about?"

Saguru pinched the bridge of his nose. "Akako-kun has a…unique method of acquiring information, which may very well take us the entire night to explain convincingly. I'd rather wait until she's present to demonstrate, if that's fine with everyone."

* * *

"Okay, fine." Shinichi refocused his attention on Kaitou KID. He had caught the familiar way KID and Hakuba spoke about Hakuba's girlfriend, and mentally filed away the possibility that Hakuba knew KID's civilian identity. "So KID, what's your interest in Spider?"

"Little bit of this, little bit of that," the phantom thief responded blithely. Then his voice hardened. "But it comes down to this: I want the organization that he works for destroyed. That, I believe, we all have in common."

"The sniper at the heist, is he a part of it too?" Masumi asked. KID nodded. "But why would they want to kill you?"

"I've been trying to find something that they want before they can."

"I thought so. Your heists are actually a highly publicized search." Shinichi narrowed his eyes. "But why would the Black Organization be interested in jewelry?"

"Not jewelry; one specific gem. As for why…" Kaitou KID paused. "I would like to defer that until Koizumi-san has returned as well. It falls in the same domain, and she may have more information about this matter by then." Hakuba frowned upon hearing that.

"That organization…you seem to think that because Vermouth and Spider were allies, they belonged to the same Syndicate," Heiji spoke up. "But the one Kudo and I know of, all their top ranked agents have alcohol based code names. Spider doesn't fit."

"They could be different branches," KID said. "One with names derived from alcoholic drinks, one from animals. I know of another agent called Snake."

Hakuba stirred. "There is a drink called snake wine."

"And 'the spider' is what they call the last shot out of a bottle of liquor," Masumi added. "I agree that different branches is more likely, though." Her eyes narrowed. "Vermouth mentioned my brother Shu-nii."

"That Akai person she was talking about?" Alex asked.

Masumi nodded. "He's an FBI agent. They told me he died, but I don't quite believe it." She looked expectantly at Shinichi.

Hakuba blinked. "Kudo-san, you called in some FBI agents to try and capture Vermouth. What are they doing in Japan? It's outside their jurisdiction."

"The Black Organization also has significant presence in the United States. The FBI most likely started their investigations there, and then…followed it here."

"Like my brother," Masumi said excitedly. "He's alive, isn't he? Where is he?"

It took Shinichi a great effort to keep his voice flat, but he did it. "I can't answer that."

"Kudo-kun!"

"You remember seeing someone who looked like your brother on board the Bell Tree Express train, right?" Shinichi asked her. "That was actually Vermouth in disguise. She had been going around to people who knew Akai Shuichi, testing to see what they would let slip when they saw her."

Masumi bristled. "You're afraid I wouldn't be able to keep a secret?"

"That is rather harsh, Kudo-san," Hakuba agreed.

"Am I?" Shinichi looked around at them. "Vermouth is just as skilled at impersonation as KID, and she specializes in reconnaissance and infiltration. Can you be sure you wouldn't accidentally reveal something if someone who looked like your brother—or even one of us—came and asked?"

Alex stared. "Has anyone told you that you're just a bit paranoid?"

Heiji barked out a laugh. "Heh, you know what they say: it's not paranoia when they really are out to get ya."

Shinichi huffed and crossed his arms. "You all saw her in action here. Can you blame me for being cautious?"

"And you've been pretending to be Conan this entire time because you want this organization to believe they succeeded in killing Kudo Shinichi?" Hakuba frowned. "Why not go to the police?"

"And what makes you think," Shinichi asked flatly. "That they're not in the police?"

Hakuba's gaze widened, then shot to KID. Interesting. "Still, between Hattori's father and mine—"

Heiji saw the same opening Shinichi did, and took it. "And are ya absolutely sure that yer father is clean?" Heiji drawled.

"Yes!" Hakuba said reflexively. Kaitou KID gave him a questioning look (okay, the two of them _definitely_ knew each other outside of heists), and he continued more carefully: "At least, I am reasonably sure."

"That's not good enough."

"Then I'll investigate until you're satisfied, one way or the other. Will that do?" Hakuba said, his voice clear and cold.

"Of course." The Superintendent General held the highest police rank in Japan. Shinichi wasn't blind to the powerful advantage he could be—he just needed to be sure it wouldn't be turned against them first.

Masumi shifted. "You say you know some people in the FBI, Kudo-kun. I...know someone in that area as well. And of course there's KID-san."

"Now we're talkin'." Heiji cracked his knuckles. "Kudo and I have some info on the higher members of the Org, and contacts in some intelligence agencies who also have hands in this big black pot. Once we shake out the rats in the police we'll go after them together."

Shinichi begun strategizing in his head. They could coordinate efforts between the police, the various intelligence services and KID, and start going on the offensive. Ai also seemed to be making progress with the antidote, and if Hakuba was willing to help her with equipment and research from Hakuba Labs, it could considerably speed up her progress. After two long years as Conan, he finally glimpsed a light at the end of the tunnel.

Then Alex, who had been listening silently, sat up and said in the same deliberate tone Shinichi and Heiji had just used with Hakuba: "You really think it'll be that easy, don't you?"

* * *

"Not easy, no." Shinichi said. "But possible."

"This won't be like another one of your cases."

Shinichi blinked. "Of course not. The take-downs will be handled by the police and FBI; they have the necessary resources and manpower. But we'd be able to help with the investigation aspect: finding the moles in the police and searching for other high ranked members of the Org and their Boss."

Alex crossed his arms. "And once you do, you want to lead them away in handcuffs, like Raina here?"

"I doubt they're going to come as quietly. But yes, I want to toss every single one of them in prison and throw away the keys."

"In the missions I've been involved in for MI6...the masterminds in charge were like the super-villains from James Bond. More than a little nuts, and willing to kill anyone who crossed their path. I'd guess the head of this Syndicate is the same?" Alex looked at Shinichi, who shrugged and nodded. "And there's another thing: none of these people have been arrested and put on trial, because none of them lived long enough to do so. They were all killed while or shortly after their plans were defeated."

From the look on Saguru's face, he was starting to understand the purpose of Alex's private talk with him before this meeting. He gave an uneasy cough. "Alex, I think I know what you're trying to say. None of us expects this to be easy. But don't you think you're being a little too pessimistic?"

"You guys are talking about going up against a global crime organization, Hakuba. It doesn't hurt to know exactly what you're getting into. Speaking of which: you mentioned intelligence agencie _s_. Plural." Alex stared at Shinichi. "As in, more than just the FBI is investigating this Syndicate."

Shinichi shot an irritated glance at Heiji.

"So there are law enforcement and intelligence agencies already actively investigating this," Alex said. "Then why aren't you leaving this to them?"

Heiji snorted. "Like ya left it to the proper authorities in all yer missions?"

"Listen, I don't know how MI6 spun it in that file you read, but during my missions I would have given my right leg to have the kind of backup and info like what you're taking for granted. These agencies are both competent and above the level?" Shinichi and Heiji both nodded, Heiji looking indignant. "Then why can't you guys let them do their jobs? I mean, I know primary school probably isn't as fun the second time around, but how is chasing down a crime syndicate preferable?"

Alex didn't get it. There were already multiple intelligence agencies tackling this problem, and unlike his situation with Yassen and MI6, it sounded like they could actually count on these agencies. As far as he knew, there was no doomsday emergency requiring their immediate help. Saguru and Kudo and Hattori and Masumi and Kaito were free to be the high schoolers they were—so why weren't they dumping this and running away like any sensible person would?

Then understanding smacked him right between the eyes with all the subtlety of a two by four. The five figures standing in a loose circle about him didn't want to be normal teenagers. They were all here, after all; ordinary teenagers didn't investigate murders or commit grand larceny during their summer break.

"Because I've been stuck in the body of a child for two years!" Shinichi answered. "Because I want to go back to my friends as who I really am, back to my old life, and as long as They are still around I can't. Even if ignoring the Organization doesn't go against every tenet I hold as a detective, I don't want to keep hiding as Edogawa Conan. If there's anything I can do to end this charade I will."

"Shu-nii won't come back until this Syndicate is destroyed, and he's not the only member of my family they've hurt," Masumi said. "I'm in."

"An' like hell I'm gonna sit still when my friend's throwin' himself into danger," Hattori said. "I'm not a coward."

Alex groaned. "That's not what I'm implying!" He leaned forward and spoke more slowly, trying to turn the jumble of thoughts inside him into something that was not only coherent but cogent. "Look, I admit that I am not the best at looking before I leap, but I want to make sure you—all of you—are prepared for what the costs of doing this could be." He thought of Egypt again — the explosion and the gunshot which together had taken the last of his childhood. "What you could lose—not just your own life, but the lives of those you love, and the rules you never thought that you would break."

"MI6 has told me that I've saved the world before. But I still don't know that someone else couldn't have done it instead." He had lost Jack, and any hope of a normal life. "I just want to make sure that you won't regret it."

"I don't know about that," Saguru said softly. "All I know is that if I decide not to do anything, I will regret that choice."

Masumi raised an eyebrow. "You don't have a personal stake in this, Hakuba-kun."

"My reasons are the same as Hattori's," Saguru answered her. Hattori grunted in surprise, while KID went still.

Shinichi had been assessing Alex with narrowed eyes since his speech, matching the boy's words with the dry black-and-white precis of his intelligence file, getting a shape of exactly what those files had left out. The picture he built… "I will not kill," he said simply. "No matter what happens. Everything else…I'll take it as it comes."

Alex wasn't surprised, but he felt something bittersweet wash over him. "I hope that you will be more successful in keeping what you value than I was," he said sincerely, and sighed. "Well, once we get back to Tokyo I should probably inform MI6 about the Syndicate and see if they have any intel about them."

KID blinked. "After all that talk, you're still planning to work with us?"

"Much as it pains me to say it, I believe that I am the subject expert in this area." Alex said. At the others looks: "Unless any of you guys have also taken down a global crime syndicate before, in which case I am perfectly happy to step out."

A part of Alex could not believe the irony. If Blunt were here to see him now, he would surely remark on how willing Alex was to jump into this—trying to take down yet another criminal organization—when MI6 had to twist his arm every single time.

But Blunt and MI6 were adults who blackmailed a teenager to do their job. These five were more like Alex himself: far too young to take on such a dangerous and difficult endeavor. Alex couldn't let them take it on alone—it would make him as bad as Blunt.

Shinichi frowned. "Won't MI6 view this as you deciding to return to the field?"

"They can view this however they like; I'm not working for them, and they don't have a hold over me anymore."

"Quite the reverse, it sounds like, actually," Masumi said, sounding pensive.

Heiji punched one fist into another. "Oh man, this is going to be amazin'."

Saguru scowled at his enthusiasm. "This is _not_ what I had planned to do during my summer break."

The enormity of it all struck Alex then. They were really going to do this. The six of them were really going to try to take down an entire crime syndicate, one that multiple intelligence agencies have been attempting to destroy for years. How would they be able to succeed where so many others had failed?

And yet Saguru was right: Alex could not choose to step back and do nothing. He wasn't capable of being a bystander; not anymore, maybe not ever.

The six eyed each other—new allies, and maybe something more. "Well then," Alex said, "How do we begin?"

He'd meant it to be rhetorical, but Shinichi answered anyways. "We'll pool all our information together once we get back to Tokyo. Then we can start looping in the FBI and others as well."

Kaito shook his head solemnly. "Before that, there's something even more important we need to do first."

He paused until he was sure of everyone's attention, and grinned. "We're a team now. Don't we need a name?"

* * *

 **A/N:** Well, I think I've learned never to make bets about my update speed, because life will take that as a challenge. For all of you who have waited so patiently, thank you and I hope you enjoyed the ending!

As for part three, I have the title and a bunch of ideas, but after my experiences with writing the first two parts I don't think I'll start posting unless I complete a full draft first. I do also have some other ideas in different fandoms/genres that I want to attempt writing as well. In the meantime, feel free to check out my fav list!

Once again, thank you all for reading!


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